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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

That's an interesting thing for him to say, because Gab is absolutely and obviously a white nationalist social media platform.

Want another example? Arguing with Ken White (Popehat) on Twitter, the official Gab account RT'd a white nationalist mocking Ken for having adopted Asian children.

https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1026849669425520640

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I think it's important to distinguish between platforms that host content of a given topic, and platforms that are specifically set up for a certain topic. For example, Reddit has /r/motorcycles, but I wouldn't call it "a motorcycling discussion platform". I'd call advrider.com or bayarearidersforum.com motorcycle discussion platforms. They're websites specifically set up for motorcycling related discussion. A website that takes a strong stance on free speech like Gab probably has a significant overrepresentation of White Nationalists, by virtue of displacement - most other big platforms ban this content so they migrate to the few places that do allow it. In that sense I think it's fair to call Gab "a platform that tolerates white nationalist" but not "a white nationalist platform".

Equating tolerance of an idea as endorsement for an idea is the root of a lot of problems we see today, in my opinion.

Andrew Torba is obviously a neo-Nazi, so can we put this argument to rest.

This comment was flagged. It's not, like, the most substantive comment on the thread, but it's not un-substantive. Patrick isn't calling someone here a neo-Nazi, as an epithet. He's pointing out that Torba is one. I think he's probably right. If he's wrong, make an argument; don't abuse the flag button.

Are you just going to ignore the fact that the official Twitter account for Gab actively promotes white supremacist talking points? It only takes about 30 seconds of scrolling through their feed to see this.

I scrolled for not only 30 seconds or so but at least a minute. Nowhere do I find Gab actively promoting white supremacy. As far as promoting "white supremacist talking points" this is a pretty substantially different actually supporting white supremacy, and support for that allegation is still pretty vague. The closes things I found are:

> “Hate speech” is free speech, as decided unanimously by the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

Sure, white supremacists may be more keen to protect hate speech but this statement is factually correct.

> Right-wing platforms provide refuge to digital outcasts — and Alex Jones

Again, hosting a speaker is not the same as promoting or endorsing what is said. By this logic, Berkeley endorsed Milo Y.

> At some point you have to ask yourself: just who is pushing for the censorship? Once you learn who, there is no going back. You can’t unsee what has been seen. You can’t unlearn what has been learned.

Arguably echoes allegations that Jewist people control the media, but this is vague at best.

Furthermore, the account states that it would not ban left-wing speakers that had written hateful message about whites:

> The @verge defends the anti-white hate of @sarahjeong then turns around and maligns Gab as “alt right” for defending free speech for everyone (including Sarah!)

I think official Gab twitter account is consistent Gab's claim to allow all legal speech, including hateful speech regardless of political leaning.

> Arguably echoes allegations that Jewist people control the media, but this is vague at best.

Don't insult our intelligence. It is obviously a vile statement about Jewish people.

http://archive.is/q8Guu if you need it to be even more obvious.

Respectfully, I think you want that to be important, and in the airless vacuum of a message board it might be, but common sense says that a "free speech" venue that is absolutely overrun with white supremacist speech, run by a committed white supremacist, simply is a white supremacist site.

Are there known instances of Gab removing left-leaning content, or content speaking against white nationalists? That is the only relevant metric here. Tweets from their official account have nothing to do with it.

A metric for what? It's obviously not a sensible or relevant metric for 'is Gab a white nationalist platform'.

I just created a Gab account to try to find hashtags or accounts that are not WN.

There are some, but of course, Gab just passed 500K accounts (no idea how many are active: they are privately held and don't publish a breakdown unlike publicly-traded TWTR, which has 335 million monthly active users) so it's tough to find exactly which non-WN communities there might be...

I am not sure if you are saying that Gab is "majority WN" or that it is "exclusively WN". There are certainly other users (of non-white ethnicities), groups and hashtags represented:

Kenyans group https://gab.ai/jojiwanyoike

Search for "Iyer" a typical Indian (Tamil) Brahmin last name: https://gab.ai/search/iyer

> I just created a Gab account to try to find hashtags or accounts that are not WN.

You did what Andrew Torba wanted you to do. He wants people to come for "free speech", to "give it a fair chance", and so forth, so that they can be exposed to, and grow to accept, neo-Nazi rhetoric.

It's a scam. Don't fall for it.

There's already a bunch on Twitter, where I've had an account for a while.

So it's too late for me, but save yourself...!

Who is this argument trying to kid? Gab is a white supremacist message board. I just reloaded the site 3 times, and got alt-right memes on all 3 loads. The only reason anyone is having a hard time seeing this now is that Gab is dying, and half the posts are innocuous bot content they inject to make it look like the site has activity. Like I said across the thread: even the white supremacists are giving up on the place.

Are you really maintaining a Gab account? Why? You could also wear a swastika armband on the same premise: "I'm demonstrating my right to wear what I want, without being coerced by society". Sure, man. But also you're a dude wearing a swastika armband. Reconsider.

"I just created a Gab account to try to find hashtags or accounts that are not WN."

As I clearly wrote, I created a Gab account in order to look around. I've not made one post nor followed anyone.

Please remember that many HN followers look up to your posts...

Yes, and then Patrick said "don't fall for it", and you suggested that Twitter was just as bad, so I wrote a comment that both rebutted the idea that Twitter is just as bad and asked if you were really (un-ironically) keeping the account.

It sounds like your answer is no! I think: good call.

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