Gab.com: the problem of antisemites and racists on Twitter

Starting from 07:34 | Reading time: 3 minutes

VThe founder and boss of Gab.com feels for a long time: Apple and Google have banned the application of its short message service from their Appstores, the operator of his server forced the portal before moving . Most companies do not want anything to do with Andrew Torba and his side.

Until Friday, Gab.com was known only to a few outsiders at the scene of anti-Semites, racists and conspiracy theorists. We met here those who, despite the rule of thumb interpretation on Facebook and Twitter, were evacuated from major social networks.

A forum for raw, often inhuman, contributions that Torba has always made under the guise of freedom of expression. "Everyone is welcome," they say on the page.

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But the page may soon disappear. The fact that even the alleged murderer of Pittsburgh, who killed at least eleven people in a synagogue, was not only a user of Gab.com, but apparently also announced his madness there, will now be a problem for them. operators.

The reaction of American companies followed in a few hours. Only the Paypal payment service has announced cooperation with Torba. Until now, the portal has been funded mainly by donations and contributions for additional billable services. Advertising does not exist on the site, it would hardly be desirable to advertise for a company in this environment. But payments via Paypal are now disappearing in the future.

In addition, the new server operator for Gab.com, the company Joyent, announced that it was going to terminate the contract immediately. In any case, the site was already difficult to reach at night, from Monday, you threaten at least temporarily. "They gave us until Monday morning until nine o'clock to find a solution," write the creators of Gab.com – ironically – on Twitter. "Gab will probably not be available for weeks."

Gab was founded in 2016 and, according to Torba, should be a counterbalance to supposedly leftist Facebook and Twitter social media. Its operation is very similar to that of Twitter, messages are also limited in number of characters – but at 300 and not 280. Among the first users were known names of alternative rights in the United States, such as Milo Yiannopoulos. Even controversial right-wing journalists Alex Jones and Carl Benjamin have used the platform.

In a statement by Gab.com, the operators dismissed responsibility for the Pittsburgh attack that there was no tolerance for violence and terrorism. In addition, the site cooperated with the authorities. At least the previous subcontractors, Paypal and Joyent, had not been able to convince them yet.