SoylentNews

aristarchus [soylentnews.org] writes:

Certain Soylentils probably already know what Gizmodo [gizmodo.com] tells us.

Twitter knockoff Gab became one of the premiere destinations for members of the extremist “alt-right” banned or just looking to branch out from other social media sites like Twitter. Now, it’s devolving into a sludgy mess of paranoia and conspiracy theories.

Didn't see that coming.

Gab, whose logo resembles the Pepe meme appropriated by the far right, was denied Apple App Store placement [gizmodo.com] and later banned from Google’s Play Store in the aftermath of a neo-Nazi terror attack in Charlottesville. [gizmodo.com] It markets itself as a free speech alternative to other platforms like Twitter and Facebook, but its management appears to be growing weary handling the sheer number of racist goons that have taken up residence there. Per a report in the Daily Beast [thedailybeast.com], as the site’s users have grown more aggressive, it’s resulted in retaliatory action from members of its management team, and now everyone is screaming at each other about (almost certainly imaginary) leftist infiltrators.

Keeping your friends close, your imaginary friends closer, and your imaginary enemies the closest.

Sanduja told the Beast that prominent white supremacists like Richard Spencer and neo-Nazi troll Andrew Anglin are either no longer or much less active on Gab. He added, “We see this significant drop-off in the number of users and chatter, and then all of a sudden we start to see these strange anon accounts created a month ago pretending to be Nazis and talking about killing Jews and all this crap.”

So, two possibilities: Either a leftist conspiracy is trying to make Nazis look bad by posting the same kind of stuff that Nazis post, or Gab and its userbase of some of the worst people online are scoring endless own goals with internecine bickering. Hmm.

Obviously a case for Ockham's Razor.

Original Submission