Far Right White Christian Nationalism

That's something of a non-sequitur. No organization like Gab can truly be called Christian.

While I was still teaching, I made a point of exposing my students to two types of web sites – the compassionate and peace-loving (such as this one) , and the ugly and hateful. Were I still in the classroom, Gab would be an excellent example of the latter. Founded in 2016, Gab has spent most of its existence on poisonous alternative social media platforms. That dubious distinction was exacerbated (or, in the minds of some, enhanced) by Gab's links to the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The shooter, 46-year-old Robert Gregory Bowers,had earlier posted antisemitic online alt-tech social network Gab. That proved to be to Gab's advantage; the suspending of high-profile right wing accounts on Twitter and Facebook created a tsunami of new users and income for Gab.

Analysis of Gab has raised disturbing questions.

• Previous research had indicated that Gab was not a significant force for organizing real-world activities. But in 2021 and 2022 it had significant growth in anti-vaccine protest organizing.

• Extreme anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic content is rife, with open praise of Nazism, encouragement of violence against minorities, and Great Replacement narratives. Many of the memes cited by the Buffalo shooter's manifesto are indistinguishable from content on Gab.

• Gab contains much of the same toxic content as openly neo-Nazi sites such as Stormfront, but companies who refused service to Stormfront continue to provide Gab with services.

What does any of this have to do with voting? The GOP nominee for PA gov, @dougmastriano , paid Gab $5k for “campaign consulting.” Now, every new account on Gab automatically follows Mastriano.

Don't be misled.