Free speech social network Gab announced its intentions to take on Silicon Valley censorship, Monday, launching a legal fund.
“For over a year now Gab has focused on our core mission of putting people first and defending free expression on the internet for everyone,” the company declared. “We seek to offer the market a free speech-friendly alternative to the authoritarian pro-censorship offering of established technology oligopolies.”
“Gab has demonstrated that there is a clear market for free speech online. Our company was profitable during its first year of operation and recently raised $1m in an equity crowdfunding campaign to expand the core team and grow the business,” they continued, before referencing Google’s removal of Gab from their store last week.
“Establishment tech companies have wrongfully exercised anti-competitive duopolistic dominance in the mobile application distribution marketplace. This behavior will not stand,” the company claimed. “We’re talking to a lot of people and firms who are motivated to challenge the trend toward institutional and cultural homogeneity in the tech world. We’re ramping up for decisive action on the legal front sooner rather than later and need your help to make it happen.”
“We are already actively talking to counsel. Naturally we can’t disclose much about those chats, but they’re very interesting! The Gab Legal Fund will be exclusively designated to exploring and moving forward on all legal options,” Gab concluded. “When you support the Gab Legal Fund you are helping us take a clear message to the oligarchs in Silicon Valley: The People will not stand by and watch as you strip away the liberty and freedoms we all cherish online. Politically correct corporate morality policing and anti-competitive behavior must end and it must end fast. The free market exists precisely for issues like this, but with a duopoly controlling 95% of mobile device distribution (both software side and hardware:) it becomes impossible to fairly compete.”
The Gab legal fund is currently taking donations in PayPal, Bitcoin, and Ethereum.
In an email to Breitbart Tech, Gab CEO Andrew Torba claimed the Gab Legal Fund “will be used to directly explore any and all legal options against the anti-competitive actions of the Silicon Valley oligopoly.”
“In the past Gab has operated solely on donations from our community, raising over $150,000 to date. On a going forward basis all donations to the company will power the Gab Legal Fund while our GabPro customers and investment capital will be used to grow the core team and cover operational costs,” he explained. “We’ve already raised $7,500 for the legal fund just half a day after announcing it.”
The Google Play store removed Gab’s app last week, which had already been up for several months, citing “hate speech” on the platform.
“This should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention. The Silicon Valley ideological echo chamber is real,” said Torba. “They have chosen to not support a free and open internet.”
“The alt tech revolution has begun,” he continued. “We ask developers who believe in our mission of free speech and individual liberty for all to rise up, speak out, and build free speech friendly products against the totalitarianism occurring in the tech industry.”
Gab previously extended a job offer to James Damore, the former Google employee who was fired from the company after he published a viewpoint diversity manifesto.
The social network is also banned from Apple’s App Store, having been rejected on numerous occasions, with the company citing “objectionable” user content, despite the fact that flagged posts could also be found on social networks such as Twitter, which are readily available on the store.
Last week, Gab raised over $1 million in public investments, hitting the maximum amount allowed by regulations.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.