"... this fully armed and operational GAB station!"

(With apologies to Star Wars Episode VI for the headline!)

The new 'Twitter alternative' social media platform, GAB, has just gone live after months of testing.

Gab, a free speech Twitter alternative, has finally opened to the public after nearly nine months of beta testing.

Users will now be able to sign up for the platform without waiting on a list.

. . .

Over the past few months, Gab has worked to transform the platform from a basic Twitter clone into an advanced social network which Twitter has repeatedly looked at for inspiration.

Native image hosting, GIFs, quote posts, private messaging, and live streaming are all recent additions to the social network, as well as a unique payment model which allows users to optionally pay a fee monthly for extras in an attempt to keep Gab ad and investor free.

“Gab is the only social network that is 100% supported by the community, not by advertisers or venture capitalists,” the company declared in their statement. “In under nine months, 170,000 Gabbers have 7.6 million posts and raised $145,000 to help us expand our team and cover operational expenses. Make no mistake about it: we are The People’s underdog in the multi-billion dollar social networking landscape.”

There's more at the link.

I like GAB because it's emphatically and unabashedly against censorship of any kind.  You're free to 'mute' any user who offends you, and any words you find offensive;  but you aren't free to impose your standards on other users, forcing them to conform.  That sounds very fair to me.  I've been a beta user of GAB for some months, and recommend it.  It's already growing its feature list, to the point that it may become a rival for Facebook as well in due course.  Twitter has also copied some of GAB's features, proving yet again that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Some argue that GAB is full of wingnuts and racists who were kicked off more 'progressive' social media.  I haven't found that.  They're there, of course, as they are on any social medium;  but there are plenty of 'normal' folks as well.  I simply mute those from whom I don't wish to hear, whether moonbats or wingnuts.

You can sign up for GAB here.  A tutorial on how to use it may be found here.  If you'd like to follow me on GAB, I'm at @PeterG .

Peter