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from the It's-not-easy-being-white-supremacists dept.
Over at the CCN, Gab is having trouble even getting its bitcoin on.
The declaration by free speech social network Gab that the firm was still allowed on Square’s bitcoin-friendly Cash App after being banned on other platforms may have been premature.
This emerged after the social media platform that is occasionally referred to as “alt-right Twitter,” over its popularity with extremist right-wingers, disclosed that the personal Square Cash account of the firm’s founder and CEO, Andrew Torba, had been deactivated.
Things like this are just bad for business.
Earlier this month as CCN reported, Gab had posted a tweet that gave the impression that Square’s Cash App — which allows users to buy and sell bitcoin — had reactivated Gab’s access. According to Breaker magazine, Square might have unknowingly reactivated an account belonging to Gab but will continue to “pro-actively delete any new accounts that it learned were connected with Gab.”
[...] Besides Square, other platforms that have banned Gab in the recent past include cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, online payment processing firm Stripe, bitcoin payment service provider BitPay and online payments system PayPal.
Currently, bitcoin, as well as money orders and checks sent to its post office address, are the only ways for Gab to process payments for its premium service, GabPro. On January 8, Gab announced that it had integrated with open-source crypto payment processor BTCPay Server.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday January 12 2019, @11:09AM (5 children)
Have you heard that poem, do you remember the poem? "First they came for the Nazis. And I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Nazi."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @05:13PM (4 children)
GP AC here.
I have. In fact, I paraphrased it to a friend (about a completely different issue) just 8 hours ago or so.
What's your point? In this case, "they" aren't the government. They are private entities who are exercising their own rights.
And yes, I do get the irony, given that Niemoller's poem [wikipedia.org] was decrying the apathy of those who didn't stand up to the Nazis. Well, I'm standing up to the Nazis and their ilk, and they won't come for you because I do. You're welcome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @06:13PM
You are my hero! Marry me and give birth to my pure anti-nazi child!
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 13 2019, @02:22AM (2 children)
You seem to have missed the lessons of Nazi Germany completely.
Neither were the Nazis the government, early on. It took time for the Nazis to become the government. You intolerant assholes who think that it's alright to punch Nazis are in the same place that the Nazis were around 1920 ro 1925. You are openly bigoted today, and you intend to use that bigotry to gain power over the people you don't like. Further, you intend to either use the government to enforce your bigotry, or you intend to take over the government so that you may directly enforce your bigotry.
“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”
― Friedrich W. Nietzsche
You have, indeed, become the monsters that you fear.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @06:19AM (1 child)
Same AC again.
I never said I wanted to punch *anyone*.
And I never said anyone shouldn't be able to express themselves either.
But I can express myself too. And I choose to say that I think the hateful rhetoric of Nazis/Neo-Nazis/white "nationalists", etc are scum whose bigoted, hateful ideas are repugnant to me.
I also specifically pointed out that despite gab.ai's current issues with payment processors didn't stop such folks from spewing their hateful ideology.
So go back and read what I actually wrote.
1. Did I advocate violence against anyone? Nope.
2. Did I advocate censoring anyone? Nope.
3. Did I suggest that I wanted/needed anyone else to share or support my disgust for hateful, violent scum? Nope.
4. Did I attempt to suppress such hateful bigoted ideas? Nope. In fact, I posted a link to where you can find such things.
What I did say is that I don't have much feeling one way or another (cf. meh [urbandictionary.com]) as to whether or not gab.ai can use (or not) any particular private enterprise.
I support *everyone's* right to freely express themselves, including those who choose to distance themselves from speech/ideas they find repugnant.
I did say that I find the bigoted/hateful rhetoric of Nazis/Neo-nazis/whatever those scumbags want to call themselves to be repugnant, uncivilized and personally offensive. I most certainly did not advocate violence or censorship against *anyone*.
But I have free speech rights too. And I use them. As Justice Jackson put it [freedomforuminstitute.org]:
And that applies to everyone. Including me. I even included a pretty good (IMHO) explanation [xkcd.com] as to why Square is within their own rights to do business with whomever they choose.
So go ahead and say whatever you like, whenever you like. I have no issue with that. I will do the same.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 13 2019, @07:21AM
Perhaps I confused you with another AC - you guys all look alike, you know. ;^)
On that, we can agree. I might not say that they are all scum - some are just misguided fools, some are fearful idiots, some are scum, some may just "go along to get along". But, yeah, the whole thing sucks.
We agree 100% on that, as well.
I well and truly despise any major platform that goes about censoring views that they don't approve of. At some point, an entity has so much power, that they should be blocked from deplatforming anyone or anything that isn't clearly illegal. It's fine for me to start a site, accumulate some small number of users, and censor their views. But, if I should reach a billion users, then censorship should be outlawed on my part. On Twitter, it's fine to have an account, with several hundred, or even thousands of followers, and to censor or block views that you don't like. But, Twitter itself is just too damned big to permit them to censor. Not only do they not have a right - they have an obligation to permit free speech.
We are going wrong, somewhere here. When 90% or more of the tech community assumes some kind of authority to censor views that they don't like, we are pretty will fucked. The bastards WILL come for me next year, and for you the following year, and eventually get around to all Soylentils, because we all share a love of free speech.
Well, they'll come for most of us.