Gab is discovering that its firm and unshakable commitment to free speech – which is to say its foolish decision to freely permit unrestrained libel and pornography – is simply not tenable:
In the last two weeks both of our payment processors have threatened to or have frozen our service. This is why we are crowdfunding from You, The People, to build our own free speech-friendly infrastructure.
Paypal did not terminate our service–yet. They threatened to a few weeks ago over a meme from 2012 called “Navy Seal Copypasta.” They took the meme literally like idiots who know nothing at all about basic internet culture. We refused to censor the meme because the context and intent were very clear. We have not heard back since we told them this 11 days ago and our account is still active as of now.
Stripe, our other payment processor, is demanding quote:
“Modification of your terms of service to indicate that adult or illegal content cannot be streamed through GabTV or otherwise distributed through the Gab service. The implementation of reasonable controls to ensure that no adult or illegal content is being streamed through GabTV or otherwise available on the Gab service.”
You may recall that I long ago warned Andrew Torba he was absolutely going to have to rein in the slanderers and the trolls, and not because Spacebunny and I were being targeted by the Alt-Reich nasties. Instead, he very publicly chose to embrace them in the name of Free Speech. So, I have no sympathy for Gab whatsoever; unlike others whose accounts have been terminated by the payment processors for dubious reasons, Gab has been in open and avowed violation of their terms of service almost from the start.
Hell, I quit using Gab for precisely the same reason that Stripe is now refusing them service. They were refusing to moderate photoshopped images of gang rape, just to give one example. And as I said at the time, Torba is temperamentally unsuited to run a business and is totally unready for prime time. His childish response to Paypal and Stripe again demonstrates both.
It’s somewhat of a mystery why conservatives are willing to throw away hundreds of millions of dollars on political campaigns, but refuse to simply build a viable alternative infrastructure. Don’t whine, cry, bitch, or complain about these things, roll up your sleeves and help build the alternative platforms and organizations!