• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The far-right’s favorite social network is facing its own censorship controversy

K

Kthulhu

Member
Social network Gab.ai, known as an anything-goes haven for the far-right, is seeing blowback from the past month’s online white supremacist crackdown. CEO Andrew Torba writes that last week, domain registrar AsiaRegistry told Gab to take down a post by the founder of neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer. Torba complied, but in the process, he set off a debate over the platform’s “free speech” bona fides — and the state of moderating online hate speech.
Click to expand...

Gab promotes itself as a non-politically affiliated anti-censorship platform, but it hosts several high-profile far-right or “alt-right” users who have been banned from other services over hate speech or harassment, including the Daily Stormer’s Andrew Anglin. According to Torba, AsiaRegistry said that one of Anglin’s posts, which mocked alleged Charlottesville murder victim Heather Heyer, violated the registrar’s abuse policy. After receiving a formal complaint, AsiaRegistry gave Gab 48 hours to remove the post. (AsiaRegistry and its parent company CentralNic didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.)

Torba told Anglin to take the post down, but he didn’t mention the registrar at first. Instead, he justified it on the technicality that Anglin hadn’t appropriately tagged his comment as “not safe for work.” Anglin responded by castigating Gab as a “fraud platform” with an interface like “a fucked up version of AOL in 1994,” labeling Torba a “free-speech hoax artist.” Other users joined him in criticizing, or threatening to leave the site
Click to expand...
.

Amid these protests, Torba published the email with the registrar complaint, saying he’d compromised to keep the site online. Anglin reversed course and described his detail-free takedown request as “brilliant,” since the resulting controversy proved that free speech is Gab’s vital selling point. But that hasn’t placated everyone, including users who say Torba should have immediately laid out the situation — and those who say Gab can’t deliver on its core promise if a company can order it to take down posts.
Click to expand...

There's more in the source about domain registers and all that if you're interested.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/6/16259150/gab-ai-registrar-andrew-anglin-daily-stormer-crackdown

Censor me if old.
 
S

Stead Fast

Banned
I do find it ironic that for something deemed 'free', they're awfully fucking obsessed with hording and protecting it.
 
C

Conciliator

Banned
I love it

One of the reasons these guys always eat each other is that they all want to play at different levels of dog-whistle layers. the 'libertarians' are always trying to get the stormers to shape up, and the stormers are always trying to get the 4chan trolls to dedicate themselves to the cause.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
It's funny how they never seem to recognize the simple fact that if everyone around you appears to be an asshole in the wrong that maybe it's you that has the problem and not anyone else. They are shitty people in general and as much to their own cohorts in bigotry as much as any of the groups they hate and disdain so loudly so often.
 
C

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Why is Andrew Anglin so goddamn desperate to make fun of a murder victim. Fuck off!!!
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Conciliator said:
I love it

One of the reasons these guys always eat each other is that they all want to play at different levels of dog-whistle layers. the 'libertarians' are always trying to get the stormers to shape up, and the stormers are always trying to get the 4chan trolls to dedicate themselves to the cause.
Click to expand...

It's like a hierarchy of how much bigotry you have. 4channers trying to convince they're not just ironically super racist but actually full on Nazi.

Funnily enough, it's the same way a terrorist organization works. Daesh/ISIS was too much for Al Qaeda, after all.
 
K

Kill Your Masters

Member
Messofanego said:
It's like a hierarchy of how much bigotry you have. 4channers trying to convince they're not just ironically super racist but actually full on Nazi.

Funnily enough, it's the same way a terrorist organization works. Daesh/ISIS was too much for Al Qaeda, after all.
Click to expand...
I have zero doubts that, given the same circumstances, these "people" would be just like ISIS or Al Qaeda.
 
S

Stead Fast

Banned
Crossing Eden said:
Why is Andrew Anglin so goddamn desperate to make fun of a murder victim. Fuck off!!!
Click to expand...

Look, he's just concerned, okay? They all are! They're losing their heritage, and now their safe space for free speech. Making fun of Heather is just how he unwinds.

He's disgusting. Fuck it, they all are.
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Waiting patiently for someone to come in here saying "I don't agree with their speech but registrars shouldn't have the power to do this".
 
K

Kthulhu

Member
Haly said:
Waiting patiently for someone to come in here saying "I don't agree with their speech but registrars shouldn't have the power to do this".
Click to expand...

I could see the argument that corporations and governments have an insane amount of control over the internet and how that's not necessarily a good thing, but that's got nothing to do with the registrars banning people.
 
W

Waddle Dee

Member
lmao

A bunch of little snowflakes afraid of people taking their "safe space" away from them that allows them to act like children.

"W-what do you mean my actions have consequences!?"
 
S

sonto340

Member
Yeah the twitter account for Gab is constantly responding to trump tweets and very plainly laying out its alt-right affiliation in other places but claims to be “nonpartisan” and take no sides. It’s a load of malarkey.
 
KonradLaw

KonradLaw

Member
While that post was despicable, it's scary how easy is to sink a site if you want to. Kind of makes the whole pro-net neutrality spiel meaningless.
 
S

Slayven

Member
sonto340 said:
Yeah the twitter account for Gab is constantly responding to trump tweets and very plainly laying out its alt-right affiliation in other places but claims to be “nonpartisan” and take no sides. It’s a load of malarkey.
Click to expand...

Funny how that always works out
 
KonradLaw

KonradLaw

Member
Stead Fast said:
That's never been a hard task, no matter who they are and what views that hold.
Click to expand...

I think maybe it's time for some parts of the internet to become more regulated. Courts aren't perfect, but they're likely better choice than arbitrary decision of tech companies. Then again, I live in country that might soon have it's judical system taken over by power-hungry goverment, after which courts won't be trust worthy anymore.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

BI: The far right is struggling to sustain interest in its social media platforms
24
5K
bachikarn replied
  • Locked
NYT: The Far Right Has a New Digital Safe Space
2
93
12K
Fox Mulder replied
Cloudflare's stance on protecting hate speech. Free Speech is Business
0
2K
Spladam replied
Study finds Reddit’s controversial ban of its most toxic subreddits actually worked
18
5K
Akuun replied
Russia drops US neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer from .ru domain
2
98
16K
SatelliteOfLove replied
Top Bottom