What do you do when Facebook starts to crack down on your hate speech? Simple – you build your own social network.

Enter Gab.ai, started in August 2016 and created in San Mateo, California.

The man behind its creation is Trump supporter Andrew Torba, who said he had grown tired of the “entirely left-leaning Big Social monopoly”.

Turns out many felt the same way, because Gab is now rocking more than 240 000 users and raised $1 million via crowdfunding alone.

When they reached that landmark figure, the site celebrated with this tweet:

Oh yeah, the site’s logo is basically Pepe the frog, which Slate will show you is pretty telling:

Branded with the face of Pepe, the anthropomorphic frog that has become the emblematic meme of the alt-right, Gab is a digital playpen for Nazis, white supremacists, men’s rights activists, anti-PC crusaders, Gamergaters, anti-feminists, free speech absolutists, and anyone who loves a solidly offensive joke. Notifications are sounded with the croak of a frog.

If an anti-Semitic or racist or sexist remark isn’t the first post you come across, it’s likely the second, third, or fourth. It’s a “safe space” for the kinds of people the rest of us want to feel safe from. The users feel their perspectives have few homes elsewhere on an internet shaped by the left-tilting values of Silicon Valley, the rejection of which has propelled Gab’s rise.

In the wake of Charlottesville, Gab was booted from the Google store, which essentially made it unavailable to all Android users. Apple rejected the app off the bat, but the site is still available through web browsers.

 

“Reply freely” is the golden goose, because no one will police your hateful views and you can rack up them likes.

Speak freely, says Torba:

And speak freely they do:

Finding someone to host your site can be problematic, especially when you’re happy to play host to people like Miss Marty, but then you can just build your own internet:

The movement’s goal is to own its own servers and run its own web hosting, domain registrar, DDoS protection software, cloud storage services, and encryption technology, not to mention social networks like Gab and other “free-speech”–centric alternatives, like a YouTube replacement called PewTube. [Utsav Sanduja, the chief operating officer of Gab] claims Gab has received “hundreds of applications” to join the alliance, which he says is purposefully being kept small in order to protect the identities of its members who fear losing their jobs at Silicon Valley companies. Though it’s unclear where exactly they work, at least a handful are on Google’s campus, Sanduja claims.

They have their army of techies on it, and the site’s popularity is growing rapidly.

Some posts in the wake of Harvey wreaking havoc in Texas:

The wall to discuss the aftermath of Texas’ disastrous Hurricane Harvey, for example, is packed with posts about how Black Lives Matter activists are taking “advantage of #HurricaneHarvey to shoot #Whitey, and then post it on #Twitter.” Another post on the Harvey wall reads: “I hear God’s fucking up the blacks with some good ol nature cleaning tactics. God bless that Klan wizard goddamn he’s brilliant.”

Even speaking freely and replying freely does come with limitations, such as inciting violence, sharing illegal pornography, trading arms, and promulgating terrorist groups on the platform.

I guess they don’t consider Neo-Nazis terrorists. Dylann Roof, anyone?

Slate have plenty more to say about Gab.ai, so feel free to carry on over HERE.

I’m as tired of pictures of people’s food and newborns as anyone, and Facebook harbours plenty of hate, but I don’t think I will be switching over to Gab any time soon.

[source:slate]