A hit piece appeared in Salon over the weekend, calling Gab, the new social media site, a ‘Twitter for racists‘. I won’t bother repeating its claims here, as they’re the same old, same old: racism and racists are tolerated, extremists abound, blah, blah, blah. Andrew Torba, co-founder of Gab, promptly released a video response, which you can view here. He does a good job of debunking some of the more ridiculous claims made about Gab.
I think most of my readers will agree that I’m neither racist nor extremist; indeed, some of my readers seem to think that I should be more extremist! That’s not about to happen, I’m afraid. My active faith, and my background as a retired pastor, color my reflections on life, the universe and everything. I hold strong opinions in some areas, but I try not to beat people over the head with them.
That means I’m feeling right at home on Gab. It explicitly strives to promote freedom of speech, to the extent that it will not censor its users except in the most severe of circumstances (unlike, for example, Twitter or Facebook, which enforce their in-house versions of ‘political correctness’). Instead, Gab gives its members the opportunity to filter their own feeds, according to their own likes and preferences. One can ‘mute’ someone with whose opinions one disagrees, or filter out any and all posts on given topics. Any censorship is thus self-imposed, rather than imposed by someone else. I much prefer the flexibility that offers. I take advantage of those tools to filter out any racist or discriminatory posts, and enjoy the rest.
If you’ve become dissatisfied with Twitter and other short-form social media, I urge you to give Gab a try. I’m enjoying it. There’s a slideshow tutorial here, and here’s a video introduction from its CEO and co-founder, Andrew Torba.
I might add that Gab’s other co-founder, Ekrem Büyükkaya, lives in Turkey and is a Kurd. So much for allegations of racism! I’m glad to be a member there, and I hope to see you on Gab as well.
Peter
Hey Pete, glad you guys finally set up a table for the adults!
My question is this: suppose, for example, that I'm a rabid SJW that gets offended at EVERYTHING – especially icky Christians with strong opinions… and let's say you posted something that offended me and my overweight, vibrant and diverse friends of all the frooty colours under the rainbow.
What's to stop them from launching the same attacks that they did on Twitter? Like going after your employers, associates, friends and family?
I'm just asking because I don't face book or tweet or twitter myself. I have a ropey mouth and get in enough trouble as it is in meat space…
Short answer – nothing. Gab does not control the world outside Gab. It does not censor its users' speech in either direction.
The answer to the unsavoury activities you mentioned is the old cold war solution – mutually assured destruction (MAD). Massive retaliation for any attack. They destroy your life, you destroy theirs. After all, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
What Minecraft Chuck said. And of course, you can choose to gab under a pseudonym, just like on the soon-to-be-dead bluebird network. Difference being that for now, gab.ai is limiting its intervention to going after strictly illegal content, let's hope they stick to their guns.