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The Rot Starts At The Top: The Problem With De-Platforming The Far-Right

So, Facebook has finally come to the realisation that white nationalism and separatism is not actually the same as national pride. In a long overdue move, “praise, support, and representation of white nationalism and separatism” will now be banned on the platform.

This comes after growing calls for social media platforms to moderate the content on their sites, including from Scott Morrison, who, following the massacre of 50 people in Christchurch, wants social media companies to “write an algorithm to screen out hate content”. Politicians in both Australia and New Zealand have come together to put pressure on big social media companies, to “ensure their technology products are not exploited by murderous terrorists”. The Coalition government, in a world-first move, will even be introducing a bill to Parliament this week, where social media executives based in Australia could face up to three years in prison and billions of dollars in fines if they fail to remove “abhorrent violent material” in a timely manner.

While this mounting pressure has evidently forced Facebook to take action, it raises the question about smaller social media platforms, particularly those that serve the furthest fringes of the alt-right, like Gab.

What Is Gab?

Founded in 2016, Gab is a relatively small social media platform “dedicated to preserving… freedom of speech”. The site has a largely far-right user-base, with figures such as Blair Cottrell joining after being ‘de-platformed’ from other widely used sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Gab came under fire after the 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting after it was revealed that the accused shooter maintained an active account on the platform, and used it to announce his intentions. Until this event, in September 2018, the website’s logo was Gabby the frog, fashioned after the appropriated Pepe the Frog alt-right meme.

Gab has groups like ‘Guns of Gab’ (for firearms enthusiasts), ‘Free Speech’ (self-explanatory), ‘Great awakening’ (dedicated to #QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory that details a plot by a “deep state” against Trump and his supporters), and ‘Anything Goes’ (where…well…anything goes, so it’s “not recommended for snowflakes”). Moreover, Gab actively welcomes users who have been banned from other platforms.

A recent report authored by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) and the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Center on Extremism, found that major Twitter bans corresponded with the highest peaks of new memberships on the social media site and directly contributes to increased participation. Analysis of the usage of the word ‘ban’ by Gab users suggests that new users are in fact highly motivated by animosity against Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

Savvas Zannettou is a PhD Candidate from Cyprus University of Technology and a member of the NCRI. He says that sites like Gab, 4chan and 8chan — where the alleged Christchurch shooter posted about the attack moments before it took place — will not take any action to mitigate the spread of hateful content on their platforms.

This is “mainly because they don’t have the resources and because they are not really interested in solving the issue.”

On platforms like Gab, disaffected former users of mainstream social media platforms are able to disseminate their ideologies in various ways without the threat of moderation.

“First, as also seen by Christchurch attack, a popular and seemingly effective way to disseminate ideology is via memes. Memes have evolved into an extremely powerful weapon that can transmit weaponised information…or political ideology with the goal to influence opinions. Users on such platforms also extensively share news articles from alternative news sources that have debatable credibility.”

The dissemination of political ideology specifically is where the problem on Gab and other platforms arises. According to a recent study, Gab is used to disseminate information about world events. The majority of hashtags used on the platform are about Trump, news and politics, with the most popular ones including “AltRight” and “Ban Islam”.

It is through the “constant trolling and sharing [of] hateful comments against specific communities like Jewish people and Muslims they create a constant hateful atmosphere against specific populations,” Zannettou says.

Essentially, users, through the spread of memes and fake news are able to live in a virtual white nationalist world fuelled by male ego and fear of the ‘other’.

When asked about the practice of ‘de-platforming’, Zannettou says that “banning these people is not a solution since they will eventually migrate to other platforms and still be able to disseminate their ideology.