American Mirror
February 9, 2017
Twitter is taking on social media rival upstart Gab by suspending its account.
Gab’s Twitter account (@GetonGab) was suspended today for no discernible reason. They hadn’t even tweeted since before the inauguration. pic.twitter.com/xzIs30UNqn
— Brittany Pettibone (@BrittPettibone) February 9, 2017
“Gab’s mission is to put people and free speech first,” the platform’s bio states. “All are welcome on Gab, and always will be.”
The same can’t be said for Twitter, apparently.
According to author Brittany Pettibone, Gab hadn’t tweeted since mid-January, so it’s unclear why the service would be suspended now.
Fast Company reported in November:
Gab is the brainchild of Andrew Torba, an adtech startup founder who now lives in Austin after a stint in Silicon Valley. He found the politically progressive atmosphere of the Bay Area to be stifling, making him uncomfortable about expressing his views, and he moved to Texas to help build his fledgling social network. He was once a member of Y Combinator (he was recently ousted), and has now taken on the mission of fixing what he sees as the censorship that plagues online spaces. The tipping point that pushed him to leave the tech bubble and start Gab came earlier this year, when he read that several Facebook employees had come forward to divulge that the network’s trending topics section was actively suppressing conservative news. “I knew I had to take action,” Torba says.
So he created Gab, which is similar to Twitter in that users can only write a limited number of characters (up to 300) in a single post and also mimics Reddit in that these posts can be up-voted or down-voted.
Twitter has not taken similar action against Facebook, as its account is still active.
So why silence the one entity professing to stand for free speech?
This article was posted: Thursday, February 9,…