It's not free speech; it's hate speech - Column
12/14/2018
Gab is a website that offers a platform for offensive ideas.
By OERYIAN WILSON
SNN Staff Writer
Since the founding of the United States, we have had freedom of speech. Though it may be pushed to its breaking point in today’s world, there’s a specific website that has taken this right way too far.
Gab is a website that is widely disliked on the internet. It is banned on many websites, including Google and Amazon, due to its interpretation of freedom of speech.
Gab’s name became known after it was discovered that Pittsburg synagogue shooter Robert Bowers was an “avid poster of anti-Semitic content on Gab,” according to CBS News.
Right before entering the synagogue and killing 11 people, Bowers wrote on Gab: “Screw the optics. I’m going in.”
While at first glance it may seem like a friendly website with memes and actual conversations, it is just a misleading cover for the extreme conversations that occur there on an everyday basis.
For example, a poster on the website that goes by NEW_ORDER wrote “every white baby born is a victory in our race’s struggle for existence.”
After being blocked on so many platforms, why is Gab still accessible from school computers? It’s probably because the website keeps getting deleted, forcing the administrators to create new ones.
This action puts school kids at risk who probably think Gab is just a fun website, but it is filled with hate speech and far-left and far-right extremist views.
Freedom of speech should be about voicing our ideas in open conversations, being mature and being adults, not posting on the internet with offensive slang and verbally assaulting anyone who disagrees.
In a place for learning, we should be focusing on the curriculum. Yes, I understand that in free time, some people play games, watch videos and listen to music. But this extremely biased website that says they want to protect free speech is not the place to be at all, so the school system should make sure to keep it blacklisted.
Gab claims to be a “social network that champions free speech, individual liberty and the free flow of information online.” But it is clear it is a bunch of extremist users who seek safety under this site’s protection. Freedom of speech does not include hate speech; being hidden behind a computer monitor shouldn’t make people feel brave enough to post these things.
Gab is a form of social media, but it is far beneath other sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and many others. This site is probably as bad as they come.