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Social Media and the Pittsburgh Shooter: Gab.com Going Down

posted by martyb on Monday October 29 2018, @08:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the social-commentary-on-social-media dept.

bradley13 writes:

The social network gab.com is apparently going down on Monday, October 29th at 09:00 ET. Their ISP has terminated their services, ostensibly because Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh mass shooting suspect, had made offensive posts on Gab.

To get this out of the way: I have mixed feelings about Gab, more specifically, about the founders. However, the idea that some social network somewhere should refuse to censor anything that is not outright illegal? This is good. Social media has become the modern "market square", and free speech should be guaranteed, even if the platforms are technically private.

If you want free speech, you apparently don't want to be in the U.S.

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by canopic jug on Monday October 29 2018, @09:35AM (2 children)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 29 2018, @09:35AM (#754984) Journal

    My guess is that the blowback is being directed to Gab.ai to take the heat off of the more culpable combination of Twitter and Faecebook.

    The mainstream media should be protecting the freedom of the press if not also more generally the freedom of speech. However, they are doing the opposite. There is a lot of effort by the mainstream media to pair freedom of speech and freedom of the press with illegal activities. Their ongoing narrative about Gab.ai may be part of that. Gab.ai is a competitor to the officially sanctioned social control media and thus they aim to be rid of it. It's easier if it has become or is perceived to have become a haven for illegal activity.

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    Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @10:56AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @10:56AM (#755023)

    My guess is that the blowback is being directed to Gab.ai to take the heat off of the more culpable combination of Twitter and Faecebook.

    Gab is an offsite version of the very ideological echo chambers that these dipshits and their algorithms have spent the last decade creating. And how many crimes [cnn.com] broadcast [newsweek.com] on rapebook? [nytimes.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @08:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @08:03PM (#755317)

      I don't know, I think I have grown to understand over the years that Civil Discord is nearly impossible in person, and totally impossible on the internet. In person at least you know you go to far the person will hit you, unless that is what you want, which it often is.... But on the interne? Forget it.