(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) Gettr CEO Jason Miller said on a YouTube livestream this week that his social media platform does not protect political speech but censors commentators and ideas that might offend protected groups, Big League Politics reported.
Miller talked with podcaster Tim Pool, a disaffected liberal who opposes President Joe Biden, about the situation in Ukraine, Biden’s deteriorating mental health, and Gettr’s decision to ban right-wing commentator Nick Fuentes and his followers, called “Groypers.”
Miller tried to maintain, on the one hand, that Gettr supports free speech, but, on other other hand, that the platform has to ban certain extreme voices and groups.
“Our viewpoint is your free speech rights really extend up to the point to where they start to infringe on someone else’s rights, whether that be their safety, whether that be keeping them protected from racial or religious epithets, making sure that no one is out there suggesting or trying to get people to act on illegal behavior,” Miller said.
Even platforms with the most principled commitment to political free speech, like Gab, remove content that encourages violence, but Miller stated that “epithets” may affect someone’s “rights” and “safety.”
Pool, an ardent proponent of free speech, did not accept Miller’s explanation.
“I don’t think you got an argument here, man. This sounds like complete bullsh*t,” Pool said to Miller, adding that he was “talking in circles.”
Tim Pool absolutely drags Gettr CEO Jason Miller pic.twitter.com/NhaPdRFcGP
— Gab.com (@getongab) January 20, 2022
Gettr’s staff did not tell Fuentes which of the platform’s rules he violated, and Miller did not seem to know either.
“I’ve not listened to Nick Fuentes. I don’t know a lot about him. I know that he’s been banned across the board. I know he’s had trouble getting on planes,” Pool said.
“So, it’s really difficult for me to understand exactly what he did wrong,” Pool said. “The issue for me is when I ask you, you don’t seem to know either.”
Miller could not defend his position, but he sided with people who consider Fuentes an extremist who cannot speak within mainstream circles.
“Look, I’m going to say on this that you’re not going to make everyone happy when you’re running a social media platform,” he said. “And people are going to have different opinions.”
