As conservatives and anti-woke centrists leave Facebook and Twitter, GETTR and Gab are battling for their presence.
Gab CEO Andrew Torba has made explicit appeals to the right-wing voices that Big Tech companies have silenced, while GETTR banned a prominent right-wing commentator.
Torba stated that “dissident political thinkers” and “dissident members of Congress” are free to speak on the platform, The Gateway Pundit reported.
“You’ll find dissident media outlets who challenge the mainstream media establishment along with normal everyday people just like you who are sick and tired of being gaslit and demonized by the Oligarchs on Big Tech platforms,” Torba said.
Torba said that Gab does not remove posts or ban content unless it contains criminal, sexual, or violent content. He believes that the zero-censorship approach will lead to Gab’s dominance.
“The new Congress is set to be the Gab Congress and no one even realizes it yet, but they will soon,” Torba said.
Meanwhile, GETTR alienated many conservatives by banning Nick Fuentes, a controversial America First commentator, on Dec. 20 without telling him what post violated the website’s terms of service.
With his conservative and nationalist political views, Fuentes attracts an obscure and niche internet following that apparently does not fit GETTR’s mainstream approach.
After GETTR banned Fuentes, Gab advertised his account.
Nick Fuentes is streaming live and getting banned on Gettr for the third time just for signing up lol.
You can find him on Gab here: https://t.co/u79p2rxvbs pic.twitter.com/Ey0vpkbPIz
— Gab.com (@getongab) January 5, 2022
In recent weeks, GETTR has attacted centrist figures like podcaster Joe Rogan and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.
Former Trump advisor Jason Miller launched GETTR last July as a free-speech alternative to Facebook and Twitter. He promised an environment without political censorship.
Nope! Cancel culture doesn’t happen at #GETTR! https://t.co/JlpukspxqC
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) October 27, 2021
“As long as they’re abiding by our terms of service, then everybody’s going to be treated the same,” Miller said in an interview on talkRadioTV. “Come on and talk about your political beliefs and no one will send you to digital jail.”
Elijah Schaffer, who hosts Slightly Offensive on BlazeTV, said he reached out to GETTR about the decision to ban Fuentes but would not “respond to my inquiry of what in their TOS [Terms of Service] he violated or what post violated it.”
I reached out to the banned individual, Nicholas Fuentes, for comment
He said there was no specific post or reason given, just banned w/out explanation just like Twitter does
With financing being from China and similar banning practices to Twitter
I’m not convinced atm
— ELIJAH ???? (@ElijahSchaffer) January 4, 2022
Fuentes commented on the ban.
“If I go on there, and they ban me for being me, well what is that?,” Fuentes asked.
“It’s arbitrary, it’s discretionary, and when they ban groyper, that takes it to a different level,” he said in reference to Fuentes’s fans, who call themselves “groypers,” a reference to an obese right-wing frog.
Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers, a Republican who has led election integrity efforts, said that GETTR must “restore Nick Fuentes or they are are no better than Twitter.”
“Free speech is free speech,” she said on Telegram.
“Trump’s behavior at the G7 is genuinely frightening.” Bowden tweeted in June 2018. “We’ve long laughed at him but reading this coverage I can’t help but feel like the United States is careening toward disaster.”
The conflict between Gab and GETTR may not last long, as former Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has resigned from Congress to run former President Donald Trump‘s social media company, Truth Social.
