https://gab.ai/gab/posts/41584631

"

Earlier today, Gab took the difficult decision to permanently ban the @Patrick_Little account from our site.

This decision was not taken lightly.

The @Patrick_Little account contained a great deal of what could be described as outrageously offensive speech, or "hate speech." However, the account was not banned for posting hate speech. In keeping with our mission of being the home of free speech online, Gab does not moderate speech which is merely offensive or outrageous, including hate speech, as the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that "hate speech" is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. See Matal v. Tam, 582 U.S. __ (2017).

Where speech on the platform ceases to be protected by the First Amendment, as in e.g. a true threat or harassment scenario, and this is brought to our attention, Gab will not hesitate to take immediate action to enforce our Community Guidelines.

In this instance, Gab determined that Gabs posted to the @Patrick_Little account crossed the line by encouraging its followers to harass private citizens who were not the subject of any public controversy. This attempted harassment included but was not limited to offering to distribute the "dox," or personal contact information, of the targets of the harassment. Per a recent appeal of a pre-trial motion to dismiss in Gersh v. Anglin, "exploiting the prejudices widely held among [a publisher's] readers to specifically target" private citizens is not protected by the First Amendment and violates our Community Guidelines.

This discovery triggered an investigation which revealed a threat to commit criminal vandalism. True threats are also not protected by the First Amendment and violate our Community Guidelines.

Accordingly Gab has permanently suspended the account.

Although we are pro-freedom, we are not pro-anarchy. Our mission is to show that it is possible to build a sustainable social media business without meddling with or influencing the things our users choose to discuss and read.

Much has been made recently of social media companies' moderation policies seeking to strike balances between civility and liberty. Civility-oriented moderation strategies are referred to as the "European tradition" and liberty-oriented strategies are referred to as the "American tradition."

We follow the American tradition to the letter and will continue to do so as long as the company exists.

Yours sincerely Gab.com"