«Laws change depending on who’s making them, but justice is justice.»
Odo in Star Trek DS9 «A Man Alone»
Andrew Torba, the CEO of gab.com, recently posted that “Germany Wants To Force Gab To Censor, It’s Not Happening“.
If you don’t know German law, there is a law that is … well, ostensibly is intended to go after fake news or other “harmful content”, but in reality is much closer to establishing censorship online. After all, who judges that something is fake news or harmful content? It’s part of the loss of rights during the recent years in Germany.
Well, the German Ministry of Justice is going after Gab.com for violating that law, which put Gab in the position of:
1) Obey German censorship laws and start censoring content that the German Government doesn’t like (this is not going to happen)
2) Disobey German censorship laws and pick a fight with the nation state of Germany (I likely wouldn’t ever be able to leave the US again, they would come at us from every possible angle through state-sponsored deplatforming, heavy fines, they would possibly leverage contacts in the Biden Admin to come after Gab in other ways, and Lord knows what else.)
3) Temporarily stop providing this service in Germany by blocking German IPs.
Andrew Torba
Personally, I could live with option 3, which is also the option Gab’s lawyers and the community prefer. After all, I know how to use Tor. There are just so many websites (like Project Gutenberg) or social media accounts (esp. on Twitter) that cannot be reached from Germany. So yeah, Tor is an old friend.
But it turns out that Gab’s CEO has balls:
Ultimately as the CEO of Gab I alone need to make this decision. These are the types of decisions that define a man and make history. If we block German IPs to appease the German government that sets a precedent that other countries will want to follow. We are not IP blocking ourselves into a corner here. If the German government wants to stop German IPs from accessing Gab they can block us themselves.
Andrew Torba
after all …
The German government isn’t concerned about any actual criminal activity, they are concerned with Thought Criminals who dare to dissent against their globalist regime.
Andrew Torba
and
In matters pertaining to serious crime, German police forces already know how to reach us, as indeed they have done many times in the past. We will continue to respond to those requests and provide prompt assistance to those police forces on a voluntary basis. What we will not do is restrict access to, or remove, content which is legal in the United States on or from servers in the United States.
Andrew Torba
Amen.
And kudos, Gab (yeah, I still think that banning porn was a questionable decision, but kudos).
BTW, Andrew Torba’s whole posting is worth reading.
