That's an interesting thing for him to say, because Gab is absolutely and obviously a white nationalist social media platform.
Want another example? Arguing with Ken White (Popehat) on Twitter, the official Gab account RT'd a white nationalist mocking Ken for having adopted Asian children.
I think it's important to distinguish between platforms that host content of a given topic, and platforms that are specifically set up for a certain topic. For example, Reddit has /r/motorcycles, but I wouldn't call it "a motorcycling discussion platform". I'd call advrider.com or bayarearidersforum.com motorcycle discussion platforms. They're websites specifically set up for motorcycling related discussion. A website that takes a strong stance on free speech like Gab probably has a significant overrepresentation of White Nationalists, by virtue of displacement - most other big platforms ban this content so they migrate to the few places that do allow it. In that sense I think it's fair to call Gab "a platform that tolerates white nationalist" but not "a white nationalist platform".
Equating tolerance of an idea as endorsement for an idea is the root of a lot of problems we see today, in my opinion.
Respectfully, I think you want that to be important, and in the airless vacuum of a message board it might be, but common sense says that a "free speech" venue that is absolutely overrun with white supremacist speech, run by a committed white supremacist, simply is a white supremacist site.
Are you just going to ignore the fact that the official Twitter account for Gab actively promotes white supremacist talking points? It only takes about 30 seconds of scrolling through their feed to see this.
I scrolled for not only 30 seconds or so but at least a minute. Nowhere do I find Gab actively promoting white supremacy. As far as promoting "white supremacist talking points" this is a pretty substantially different actually supporting white supremacy, and support for that allegation is still pretty vague. The closes things I found are:
> “Hate speech” is free speech, as decided unanimously by the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
Sure, white supremacists may be more keen to protect hate speech but this statement is factually correct.
> Right-wing platforms provide refuge to digital outcasts — and Alex Jones
Again, hosting a speaker is not the same as promoting or endorsing what is said. By this logic, Berkeley endorsed Milo Y.
> At some point you have to ask yourself: just who is pushing for the censorship? Once you learn who, there is no going back. You can’t unsee what has been seen. You can’t unlearn what has been learned.
Arguably echoes allegations that Jewist people control the media, but this is vague at best.
Furthermore, the account states that it would not ban left-wing speakers that had written hateful message about whites:
> The @verge defends the anti-white hate of @sarahjeong then turns around and maligns Gab as “alt right” for defending free speech for everyone (including Sarah!)
I think official Gab twitter account is consistent Gab's claim to allow all legal speech, including hateful speech regardless of political leaning.
This comment was flagged. It's not, like, the most substantive comment on the thread, but it's not un-substantive. Patrick isn't calling someone here a neo-Nazi, as an epithet. He's pointing out that Torba is one. I think he's probably right. If he's wrong, make an argument; don't abuse the flag button.
Are there known instances of Gab removing left-leaning content, or content speaking against white nationalists? That is the only relevant metric here. Tweets from their official account have nothing to do with it.
I just created a Gab account to try to find hashtags or accounts that are not WN.
There are some, but of course, Gab just passed 500K accounts (no idea how many are active: they are privately held and don't publish a breakdown unlike publicly-traded TWTR, which has 335 million monthly active users) so it's tough to find exactly which non-WN communities there might be...
I am not sure if you are saying that Gab is "majority WN" or that it is "exclusively WN". There are certainly other users (of non-white ethnicities), groups and hashtags represented:
> I just created a Gab account to try to find hashtags or accounts that are not WN.
You did what Andrew Torba wanted you to do. He wants people to come for "free speech", to "give it a fair chance", and so forth, so that they can be exposed to, and grow to accept, neo-Nazi rhetoric.
Who is this argument trying to kid? Gab is a white supremacist message board. I just reloaded the site 3 times, and got alt-right memes on all 3 loads. The only reason anyone is having a hard time seeing this now is that Gab is dying, and half the posts are innocuous bot content they inject to make it look like the site has activity. Like I said across the thread: even the white supremacists are giving up on the place.
Are you really maintaining a Gab account? Why? You could also wear a swastika armband on the same premise: "I'm demonstrating my right to wear what I want, without being coerced by society". Sure, man. But also you're a dude wearing a swastika armband. Reconsider.
Yes, and then Patrick said "don't fall for it", and you suggested that Twitter was just as bad, so I wrote a comment that both rebutted the idea that Twitter is just as bad and asked if you were really (un-ironically) keeping the account.
It sounds like your answer is no! I think: good call.
Cowardly obscurantism is the standard tactic of white supremacists and others with loathsome views. They know that if they come right out and say what they believe, they will get nowhere. So they engage in slight of hand and dog whistles in order to recruit the gullible. Andrew Torba's entire platform is built on this obscurantism.
No, it isn't. It's floundering, because it is a site that caters to white supremacists, with an aspirational sideline in catering to normal people. Among people who have any name recognition for Gab whatsoever, simply having a Gab account with your name on it is a pretty icky social signal to be sending.
In practice, what I see as I regularly check up and screenshot it is a whole lot of bot content punctuated by an occasional neo-Nazi post. I don't even think the white supremacists are all that invested in it.
> In practice, what I see as I regularly check up and screenshot it is a whole lot of bot content punctuated by an occasional neo-Nazi post. I don't even think the white supremacists are all that invested in it.
For what it's worth, I think that's just the effect of the default feed. If you actually follow anyone it completely changes. If what you're saying about the bots is true, maybe I don't see them so much as a result of a sort of WoT effect by follows.
I certainly find the default feeds grody, but after adding "jq" and a few others to my muted words list, it's worth looking at some of the feeds for the occasional hidden gem. I will say, the space is not rich and diverse like Twitter used to be (yet).
I honestly really liked the Twitter crowd, but it seems like conversation on Twitter is dying; I shuttered my account a while back, and if Gab doesn't grow a broader base I don't really know what there will be to take its place.
Minds doesn't look too bad, but it seems to suffer from a (milder, potentially thanks to the influx of desperate refugees of Facebook in Vietnam) form of the same disease: being populated largely by untouchables (some so vile they cost you job prospects by mere proximity).
> simply having a Gab account with your name on it is a pretty icky social signal to be sending.
Yeah, I have it on good authority that merely having a Gab profile has cost me a job offer, which is why I closed it a few months ago. Reopened it today because if I die tomorrow I'd like to go with my spine intact.
I disagree with the idea that merely having an account on said website should imply that I am immoral. I know of a number of good, honest people who have Gab accounts, and I don't want to live under the control of the bigots who would judge me that shallowly (in much the same way allowing myself to be cowed by other bigots would be wrong).
So you've got 'fine people on both sides' and 'they're the real bigots'. If you think these are somehow substantive or convincing rejoinders, you should probably re-think that. Mostly they just make you sound like a Nazi online.
Want another example? Arguing with Ken White (Popehat) on Twitter, the official Gab account RT'd a white nationalist mocking Ken for having adopted Asian children.
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1026849669425520640