Build Your Own Platform

Here’s the latest on the Gab situation:

Rob Monster, the new domain registrar, boasts on Twitter about removing hundreds of accounts:

https://t.co/IsgRFWC732 is back online but vigilance continues 24/7. Please report any threatening content to [email protected]. Per @getongab, in the last few hours 40 individual posts, and a few hundred accounts were removed for violating content guidelines.

— robmonster (@robmonster) November 5, 2018

Nebraska Antifa responds:

we emailed a list of Gab posts doxing DC activists 6 hours ago. The posts have only doubled since. Got an explanation?

— nebraska antifa (@antifa_ne) November 12, 2018

Gab responds:

We’ve been taking action on them all day long. Perhaps if your “activists” (labeled by US security agencies as ‘domestic terrorists’) weren’t doxxing and harassing @TuckerCarlson and his family they wouldn’t have this problem. Doxxing is wrong no matter who is doing it. https://t.co/ON21LmtQfR

— Gab.com? (@getongab) November 12, 2018

Gab responds:

If you’re doxxing antifa on Gab it’s being removed.

If you’re doxxing the alt right on Gab it’s being removed.

Doxxing will not be tolerated on Gab.

It shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere.

Rules of engagement for the culture war: no doxxing, no threats, no violence.

— Gab.com? (@getongab) November 12, 2018

Gab responds:

Follow our guidelines or don’t use the site. It’s really that simple. https://t.co/NX17iySjfE https://t.co/amB3YIy07o

— Gab.com? (@getongab) November 12, 2018

Gab responds:

“I can’t post a credit card or address of someone anonymously online with no accountability? You’re not a free speech site!” pic.twitter.com/WwMdE3BQHb

— Gab.com? (@getongab) November 12, 2018

Two weeks ago, we were comparing Andrew Torba to Stonewall Jackson: “There was Andrew Torba, standing like a stonewall, fighting off the horde of fake news “journalists,” cat ladies and Antifa who want to end free speech in America.” Now, we are like …

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… wish I could take back that hot take.

I’m not saying these rules are unreasonable. I agree that violent speech is an albatross. I can even understand the no doxxing rule. It’s just that … hundreds of accounts have been purged and the precedent has been set of Antifa and “journalists” censoring Gab. So now there will be no end to it.

If we have learned anything from this experience, it is that social media needs to be an auxiliary, not a substitute for our own platforms. It is easy to become a lazy shitposter. Say what you will about Stormfront or VNN Forum or 4chan, but there is less censorship on the old forums than on Gab.

In the months ahead, we are going to recommit to building up OD. We’re also going to continue to need your support to get past the legacy of the huge mistake that was Charlottesville. There is a legal battle on the horizon which will be decided in 2019 that will impact the entire movement.