Thread by @reveal

1/ Last week, @paypal, @godaddy and @stripe pulled their support for @GetOnGab, the alt-right social platform.

But here's our question: Why did it take so long? revealnews.org/blog/the-hate-…

2/ After all, Google and Apple had pulled their support for the alt-right social media platform months ago, and Gab has a long and well-documented history of hosting hate speech.

3/ Just before allegedly massacring 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in late October, Robert Bowers posted on Gab: “Screw the optics, I'm going in.” archive.is/MHeoL

4/ A couple days after the shooting, Gab became inaccessible and started displaying this message:

5/ Gab was back online as of this morning, per @BBCNews: bbc.com/news/technolog…

Yet if you try to access the site right now, something appears to be broken:

6/ Gab was launched in 2016 as an alternative to mainstream social networks like Twitter and Facebook, which have anti-hate speech and harassment policies that sometimes result in members of the alt-right getting their accounts suspended.

7/ Gab, by contrast, only bans “threats of terror, direct threats of violence, child pornography, pornography, and doxxing,” according to a handy @voxdotcom explainer: vox.com/policy-and-pol…

8/ Gab quickly became a haven for hate. Here are some of the user-created groups that the site suggested users join.

9/ There’s a lot of abhorrent content on Gab. We won’t go into it here, but in case you’re curious, check out the work of @gabsbestbits, a watchdog account that exposes various death threats, doxxing and terrorist activities on the site.

10/ When a hoax story circulated about the Parkland shooter having trained with a white supremacist militia, the militia leader tried to clarify things by posting on Gab. revealnews.org/blog/the-hate-…

11/ As we reported in September, Gab has reported rapid growth in Brazil in the run-up to the election of far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro as the country’s next president. revealnews.org/blog/the-hate-…

12/ That same month, the site was kicked off its Australian domain provider for violating the country’s anti-discrimination law prohibiting “public vilification on the basis of race, religion, or ethnic origin.” revealnews.org/blog/hate-repo…

13/ But Gab has a friend on @FoxNews. Founder Andrew Torba recently appeared on the network for a friendly chat with @TuckerCarlson.

14/ Torba, by the way, was kicked out of the alumni network for the Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator for harassing Latino startup founders. buzzfeednews.com/article/nitash…

15/ Anyways, back to the first question:

Why, knowing all of this was happening, did it take so long for @paypal, @godaddy and @stripe to part ways with Gab?

16/ Reporters @asankin and @willcarless have been keeping a close eye on Gab for months. It’s part of their ongoing coverage of hate and hate crimes across the U.S.

Sign up for their newsletter to stay up-to-date. revealnews.org/hate/