Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Gab founder Andrew Torba on free speech online


There have been all sorts of attacks on Gab, the new online social media service, alleging that it's the home of online neo-Nazi's and racists who can't get a voice anywhere else, that it's a shill for the alt-right, and so on ad nauseam.  Needless to say, they're all lies.  Sure, you'll find neo-Nazis, racists and alt-righters on Gab, just as you will on Twitter, Facebook and other social media.  The difference is that Gab expects its members to respond like adults, not like spoiled children.

Small boy:  "Mom, she touched me!"

Mom:  "Girl, stop that!"

Small girl:  "But he touched me first!"

Mom:  "Boy, stop that!"

There are no Moms on Gab.  If you don't like something being said, you can choose to "mute" key words (for example, Nazi, racist, etc.) so that you never see posts containing them.  If you don't like the views of a particular user, you can choose to mute them entirely, so that you never see anything they say.  I've done both, and my use of Gab is much more peaceful as a result - but it's up to me, not the Gab administrators.  They expect me to be an adult and arrange my own online environment.  They refuse to play policeman.  They promise free speech, and that means freedom of speech without exception, even if others profoundly disagree with what's being said.

I fully support that.  It's why I joined Gab in the first place.  I go with the statement often wrongly attributed to Voltaire:  "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."  That's free speech, right there.  That's why the Founding Fathers gave us the First Amendment.  They knew we'd need it - particularly when it's honored more in the breach than in the observance.

To defend Gab against its detractors, Andrew Torba, one of the founders of the service, joined Tucker Carlson last night to discuss social media, censorship, and free speech.  He didn't speak for long, but what he said spoke volumes.  See and hear for yourself.





BTW, that claim about Facebook shutting down a million accounts every day?  It's true.  See here for details.

Well done, Mr. Torba!  I'm pleased to be a part of Gab, and intend to stick around for the long term, God willing.  If any of my readers are tired of politically correct censorship of social media, give Gab a try.  I think you'll like it.  My handle over there is @PeterG.

Peter

7 comments:

lee n. field said...

The "Next Big Thing" in social media is overdue.

ravenshrike said...

While the statement might not be spoken by Voltaire, it was a precis of his belief system coined by someone else and not necessarily something she believed in.

Anonymous said...

Considering how your publisher @voxday (himself "alt-right") is currently getting hammered by sneering Nazi trolls on Gab, I'm surprised that you think the claim that Gab is "the home of online neo-Nazi's and racists who can't get a voice anywhere else" isn't self-evidently true. Because it is.

Twitter keeps dumping its Nazis on Gab. Before Gab, they would have risked being accused of abusing their monopoly power. Now, they can point to Gab as an alternative place to go.

Impossible to filter out, or "mute", the Nazis on Gab. They are too numerous. And they keep getting reposted by people whom you thought were decent and sane.

Peter said...

@Anonymous at 9:37 AM: Yes, it's entirely possible to filter out the Nazis. They're an irritating subculture with few brains and no future. I've had more than enough dealings with their ilk to understand them, and I have zero tolerance for them. Any time one of them rears his ugly head, I play "whack-a-mole" with the Mute feature. It's easy enough.

As for "Twitter keeps dumping its Nazis on Gab", there will probably have to be an evolution of Gab's terms of service to allow the mass banning of such individuals. However, I shall still choose to err on the side of free speech rather than banning. I think the Founding Fathers would approve.

McChuck said...

There should be a way to not ban users for odious but not criminal behavior. Something like and administered "known troll" setting on their account, so they could be labeled and ignored by application of mute settings by users. Kind of like the new NSFW button settings, they could perhaps be muted by default.

Margaret Ball said...

This is why I don't have a Facebook account. It feels too much like taking a shower on the front lawn.

bmq215 said...

I suspect this may ultimately bring about the end of Gab. It isn't hard to imagine that the bigwigs at Twitter are rubbing their hands in glee having been given the chance to choke their upstart, would-be rival on their very own medicine without having to make any changes to their existing policy/marketing/etc.

Of course, as of August 2017 Gab has less than 0.1% of the market share that Twitter has, so they probably weren't too concerned.