Gab founder and CEO Andrew Torba was temporarily banned from Facebook last night after sharing a link to Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos’ Dangerous Faggot tour trailer just hours before his event at Texas Tech university.
Torba documented the temporary suspension from Facebook on Twitter and Gab, relaying his confusion as to the reason of his ban and the removal of the post, which purely consisted of a link to the video and the comment, “Wew lads… Coming to college campuses everywhere. Release the frogs.”
“I shared a link to Milo’s new tour trailer on Facebook hours before his first live show. About an hour before the show at Texas Tech, Milo started actively posting on Gab promoting it. During the livestream I went to check my Facebook only to find that I was logged out. When I logged back in, I was told the link to Milo’s trailer had been removed for me because it broke community guidelines,” Torba told Breitbart Tech.
“I was not told which guidelines and was not given the choice to remove the content myself. Instead it was removed for me. I decided to test and see what was really removed- my copy above the link or the link itself,” he explained. “I shared the video link again, and this time within minutes I was locked out of my account, the content automatically removed, and a 24 hour ban notice for being a bad boy and sharing a harmless promotional video.”
Though Torba’s post was simply removed the first time he shared it, it was the second time he attempted to share the video that he was handed a temporary suspension.
“Being banned means I can sign into my account, but can not engage at all without a message appearing reminding me that I am shut up for the day,” said Torba. “This makes it really difficult to stay in touch with family and close friends because even your private dm’s are blocked from use. Facebook’s Marxist totalitarian approach to community guidelines means that they can choose an editorial stance and point to vague ambiguous guidelines or ‘algorithms’ as their crutch.”
“At Gab, this is everything we are fighting back against,” he continued. “Instead of ‘big brother social’ knowing best, Gab places the onus on the user to create their own experience and filter out people, words or topics they do not want to see on Gab. We will continue to put people first and promote free speech and expression online for all.”
Torba is currently still serving his 24 hour suspension from Facebook.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.