I think the Gab story is one of the most important new issues in content moderation + the power of intermediaries. How will growing demands for platform responsibility extend downward into other more 'infrastructural' services? wired.com/story/how-righ…
We can see these infrastructural intermediaries, that have traditionally positioned themselves as impartial, struggling to justify supporting Gab: web and domain hosting, payment services, cloud services. Remember, social media platforms positioned themselves as neutral too.
Even those forcefully arguing to keep Gab aren't just proclaiming neutrality: they're protecting speech, defending Gab, accusing others of censorship, etc. Value judgments, cloaked as the absence of value judgments. Even here, the veneer of neutrality is flimsier than we thought.
And for God's sake, why is the most ardent defender of Gab in this story named Monster? A little too on the nose.
