Posted on 10/28/2018 8:59:45 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Once known as the new frontier of free speech, the internet seemed destined to be one place on the planet where ideas could be freely expressed, and thoughts could be challenged in open debate. But no more. The unfiltered, Twitter-esque social media platform GAB – a messaging board where censorship does not rule – is about to be tossed to the wolves.
In the wake of the horrific mass murder at a Pittsburgh, PA, synagogue, the web hosting company that provided GAB’s platform has decided to pull the plug, claiming an unspecified “breach of the Joyent Terms of Service.” Given little more than one day of notice, GAB has until the morning of Monday, October 29, to relocate its entire operation to a new platform, with a new provider.
PayPal has also cut ties with GAB. A surprising move considering Facebook has in the past had users live stream actual murders on its platform, yet faced no backlash from the digital pay gateway.
Publishers The alleged killer at the Tree of Life Synagogue, Robert Bowers, had posted numerous anti-Semitic sentiments on his GAB feed. Being a company that advertises itself as a haven for free speech, censorship has only rarely reared its ugly head at GAB. Unlike the social media platform’s main competitor, Twitter – where censorship of content is ubiquitous – users are largely left to their own devices and are free to post whatever they please.
Joyent, GAB’s current web host, has taken a step that will have the delegates of political correctness exulting in faux righteousness. By moving to control what speech can and cannot be expressed via their hosting service, the company has become a publisher rather than just a provider of electronic space. This is the thin end of the wedge for companies that provide space for content creators; calls for Facebook, Google, and other tech monopolies to follow suit will soon be on the way.
Virtual Masters Yesterday it was Alex Jones, today it is GAB, tomorrow it will be any soul who dares to dream of a world where people can communicate freely.
Many people will be asking themselves: Didn’t Bowers have Facebook and Twitter accounts? And the answer is “yes.” So why is it that Internet Service Providers are not looking to shut down these online behemoths? Simply, because Google, Facebook, Twitter, et al., are their own hosts. These companies are so big that they do not rely on third parties to host their websites and are thus beholden only to themselves.
In the future, unless a company can afford the monumental expense of setting up its very own ISP, it will be subject to the whims and political leanings of its digital masters. This means that no start-up company will be free to operate without becoming a publisher, and being a publisher means you are open to legal action over the content you allow – a definition that will force all small operations to censor or go bust.
Digital Hypocrisy The Facebooks, Twitters, and Googles of this world fear no such repercussions. Indeed, anti-Semitic content has been widely viewed and shared on these major league social media platforms without a single action being taken. Prominent black nationalist and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has posted and reposted videos of himself stating, “I’m not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-termite,” receiving thousands of “likes” and retweets, all without restriction. Despite examples such as this, the voices who are celebrating GAB’s imminent demise have not called for Twitter to suffer the same fate.
As the nation’s tech giants gain more concentrated power and the country’s leaders await legislative proposals for regulation that may create a virtual monopoly, it is time to ask ourselves if this is the end of the internet as a stage for free speech.
Yesterday it was Alex Jones, today it is GAB, tomorrow it will be any soul who dares to dream of a world where people can communicate freely, express themselves openly, and live in a society where the legality of your own thoughts are not subject to political diktat or capricious whimsy.
[ In before “Muh private corporation.” ]
In before “Start yur own muh social network”
Andrew Torba @a PRO
27 minutes ago
New hosting provider secured. Working around the clock to see to it that Gab.com stays online. You can’t stop the power of The People in their fight for freedom and liberty against tyranny.
"Conservatives just need to build their own internet. That'll show 'em!"
Thanks. I was just going to post this. It’s just a matter of making it happen.
Free speech doesn’t mean you don’t get offended. In fact it means you likely will. That’s how free speech works.
Gab does have limits though so it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with them before going all Robert Bower on there.
At the moment, they're just barely running; and I'm trying to go through my "saved posts" and save the excellent memes I've been accumulating, just in case they don't recover as planned.
I’ve been on there a while now too and have yet to see one porno thing at all. Yes, there are some anti-this and anti-that stuff but that’s the nature of free speech rights. You can choose to mute those you find too disgusting to read. It’s all on YOU.
Right. First we're told that if we want to post our opinions that don't conform to our liberal overlords, we should just start our own services. Now that someone has done that, they have their network access cut off. Guess if you aren't a NPC you have to start your own ISP.
Soon they will be telling us we have to build our own fiber routes, and can't use the same right-of-way used by all other internet providers. But, it will all be hunky-dory with many, because after all, it's not the government doing the dirty work. It's just the brown shirts.
Yet there will be plenty of people here who will passionately defend the Big Tech monopolies as being “just private companies” and who will claim that anybody else can just start up their own company to compete.....even though we are seeing as in the example of Gab, the barriers to entry to compete against these monopolies are quite high.
This willful self defeating blindness on the part of some in a misguided defense of supposedly “free” markets which are anything but is truly remarkable.
Big Tech needs to suffer the consequences of running monopolies and engaging in censorship - that is heavy federal regulation to prevent censorship or breaking them up via antitrust actions from the DOJ.
you didn't make it. See post #8
[ In before “Start yur own muh social network”
“Conservatives just need to build their own internet. That’ll show ‘em!” ]
This is basically “tree house syndrome” the boys will build a tree-house, the girls will whine and complain that the boys are not being “fair” and they want to be allowed into the tree-house they didn’t build. Once they get access to it the girls will be happy for a while and the boys will leave, meanwhile the tree-house will slowly fall apart and as the who didn’t build it will not maintain it. The boys will be told to be build their “own” tree house.... Eventually the boys will build another tree-house and guess what happens? the girls will start whining about it “not being fair”....
Even if Conservatives build their own internet, at some point it will be usurped by the liberals who will demand inclusion then they will wreck it and the conservatives will be told yet again to “build their own internet” if they don’t like it....
At the moment, they're just barely running; and I'm trying to go through my "saved posts" and save the excellent memes I've been accumulating, just in case they don't recover as planned.
I believe it took a little longer than just a couple of hours but it didn't days that's for sure. It's hard to change servers while still trying to keep the site up and running. We all just need to be a little patient as Andrew is working hard to make the change over and he will let us all know as soon as Gab is operational again. Right now it is running sluggish. But all your material should still be available to you once the change over is complete.
Well I've been on Gab for about a year now and yes I have seen some of the vulgar tranny porn images but I immediately notify Andrew and he deletes them immediately and bans the user but the user is persistent and keeps popping back up under different aliases using VPN and other masking techniques. This is designed to get Gab branded persona non gratis everywhere on the net. It really and truly is a conspiracy to harm his site and us his users. Dictators and wannabe dictators can't abide free speech.
First they came for GAB, soon it will be this place.
That one is courtesy of a complaint by Adam Flanders, apparently the Brett Kimberlin of the LGBT movement. Apparently, Flanders, a gay man, had a criminal complaint against him in 2006, I believe for sexual exploitation of a minor or some such. Therefore, he is on his own little jihad to shut down sites that expose that record.
Too late. See #8.
What they are talking about here are ISP companies. You can apparently have all the servers you want, but unless you can front the money to create your own ISP, you are at the whim of a host. This is apparently true even of FR.
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