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I signed up for Gab about 1.5 years ago. It pegged itself as a "free speech platform", which I found pretty interesting. The concept of a wild west free speech
by el_dev_hell 7y ago
I signed up for Gab about 1.5 years ago. It pegged itself as a "free speech platform", which I found pretty interesting.
The concept of a wild west free speech utopia sounds great (and I would still like to see that), but it's filled with repetitive white nationalist bullshit. That's the early adopter group.
Because of that early group, it's a horrible experience for anyone else.
- jakelazaroff 7y agoIt's not just their early adopter group; Gab has actively cultivated a white nationalist userbase. See for example https://twitter.com/ClenchedFisk/status/1027690034718224384 https://twitter.com/ClenchedFisk/status/1027690034718224384 I am skeptical of the "wild west free speech utopia" as a lot of people seem to conceive of it, because some forms of speech have chilling effects on others. For example, if I pass a group of angry people chanting "blood and soil", I'm certainly not going to say or do anything that makes me legible as Jewish.
- wallace_f 7y agoWhich is sad. Because if everyone tolerates abuse, whether from governments or corporations, we get creeping authoritarianism. Also, I think you bith are exaggerating a bit about Gabhere is obviously a lot of alt right though.
- SkyBelow 7y agoAny early adopter of a technology promising freedom will be the groups who need it the most, which tends to be the groups who are most at odds with current social norms. Just look at who the early adopters are for tor or bitcoin.