Far-right platform Gab veers into overt antisemitism -- and only some Republicans back away

[marmar]

(Salon) On Friday morning, Andrew Torba, founder of the far-right social media platform Gab, issued a seeming ultimatum to the Republican Party: "Gab is becoming the litmus test for candidates. Many have passed the test and doubled down. Some have lied and disavowed to gain points with the enemy. A truly great service to the American people to see who has a spine and who does not."

The occasion for the post was the fact that, over the last month, Torba and his platform, a hotbed of Christian nationalism and overt bigotry of various kinds, have become the center of numerous political controversies. After Torba endorsed a series of Republican candidates from the party's MAGA wing, one after another has been pressed to explain their relationship with a figure long associated with racist and antisemitic speech, including, just this Thursday, his calling Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro, the state's Jewish attorney general, "this antichrist."

Much of the controversy began last month when Media Matters revealed that Shapiro's Republican opponent, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, an outspoken Christian nationalist who was at the U.S. Capitol amid the Jan. 6 riots, had paid $5,000 to Gab for "consulting services." The money, Mastriano later said, was a one-time payment for advertising services, which, as HuffPost later reported, may have been an agreement to help Mastriano gain new followers by automatically signing all new Gab accounts up to follow the candidate.

While Mastriano had previously interacted with Torba — including a May interview for Gab News in which Mastriano thanked God for the platform — news of the payment brought renewed attention to Gab's long history of extremism.

Most notoriously, the platform was the preferred outlet of Robert Bowers, the man who killed 11 people at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 in the deadliest act of antisemitic violence in U.S. history. Bowers was motivated by the "great replacement" conspiracy theory, and in particular the version of it that claims Jews are orchestrating a deliberate effort to replace white majorities in Europe and North America with nonwhite immigrants. ........................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/08/13/far-right-platform-gab-veers-into-overt-antisemitism--and-only-some-back-away/

[Alexander Of Assyria]

1. So called Christians far greater danger to America than Muslims! Truth!

Always have been.