The founder of Gab said that the social media network, the far-right alternative to Twitter, has had two posts from one of its users deleted by Microsoft for anti-Semitic contact. Before taking action, the tech company warned the user that failure to delete the posts could result in expulsion from the giant’s Azure cloud service.
Online platforms like Facebook and YouTube have been facing external pressure to remove users who engage in hate speech. Alex Jones, a controversial conspirarcy theorist—who, among other myths, claims that the Sandy Hook school shooting never happened—has been removed from both. But now, the hosts and service providers for individual websites and software systems are thinking about cracking down as well.
I’m going to say it once again. There should be no place on Twitter for accounts which preach hate, racism, bigotry, and anti-semitism like @RealAlexJones @getongab and their cohorts.
RETWEET if you agree that Hate Speech should have no place on social media
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) August 10, 2018
The Gab posts in question were published by Patrick Little, a neo-Nazi who attempted to mount a U.S. Senate run in California. Gab founder Andrew Torba said Little initially promised to delete the posts on his own, but when he did not, Microsoft’s cloud platform “took action and removed both posts.”
Ignored 99% of press requests over the last 24 hours and laughing about it.
It’s more fun making you idiots actually do some work for once. Also you’ll stay tuned into our feed and the site all day long, looking for your own “scoop.”
“Journalists” are so predictable.
— Gab.ai (@getongab) August 10, 2018
“Gab.ai is of course free to choose otherwise and work with another cloud service provider or host this content itself,” Microsoft said, according to Axios. “If it wishes to make that choice, we will provide it with a reasonable amount of time, in this instance longer than 48 hours, to transition its content elsewhere before its access to Azure is terminated.”
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