One week ago, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott claimed the social-media platform Gab run by Christian founder Andrew Torba is anti-Semitic.
WND has asked the governor’s office multiple times for an explanation but has received no response.
Now, conservative commentator and activist Michelle Malkin suggests a reason for Abbott’s mystifying claim that “anti-Semitic platforms like Gab have no place in Texas, and certainly do not represent Texas values.”
Malkin, whose syndicated weekly column is published by WND, suggested a “power play” in the Republican Party could be behind the comment.
She noted in a column Tuesday that the Texas Republican Party has a verified Gab account and backs the platform.
“The state party is led by Abbott’s chief political rival and enormously populist party chairman, Allen West,” she wrote. “What better way to neutralize a potential primary challenge than to level the nuclear ‘anti-Semitism’ bomb?”
Malkin cited Nick Fuentes, the organizer of the America First Political Action Conference, saying “Gab vs. Abbott is the ultimate ‘America First’ litmus test.”
Fuentes, she noted, is “now banned from almost 30 platforms, including YouTube, DLive and Clubhouse, over the very same trumped-up charges of ‘anti-Semitism’ wielded against Gab and Torba.”
Torba reacted in a video on his platform to the governor’s comment.
“Folks, the level of attack we are under right now in this spiritual war has never been greater,” Torba said. “We are facing media smears, literal demon hackers, banks banning us, and now the Governor of Texas for some reason smearing our community of millions of people.”
Big League Politics pointed out the Texas GOP had promoted its Gab account in January:
We’re on Gab! pic.twitter.com/7KJ64xPBcu
— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) January 23, 2021
After Abbott’s comment, the party issued a statement on Twitter in support of Gab.
“The RPT will always fight censorship. We support the 1st Amendment, including free speech platforms & VC @CatParksTX’s right to criticize such. Texas GOP has no plan to deplatform from any of our social media accounts. The 1st Amendment still shines brightly in the Lone Star State.”
The RPT will always fight censorship. We support the 1st Amendment, including free speech platforms & VC @CatParksTX‘s right to criticize such. TexasGOP has no plan to deplatform from any of our social media accounts. The 1st Amendment still shines brightly in the Lone Star State pic.twitter.com/mDsEb5hCYa
— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) March 11, 2021
Malkin noted Torba said that “while Abbott trashes Silicon Valley for clicks and cable TV hits, he’s aggressively luring high-tech companies (and future campaign donors) like Tesla, Oracle and Hewlett Packard to move to Texas.”
Torba insisted Gab is not an anti-Semitic platform.
“We protect the political speech of all Americans, regardless of viewpoint, because in this age of cancel culture nobody else will. That means unpopular viewpoints may be found on the site,” he said.
“There are many Jewish Gab users and customers, whose lawful speech we protect with just as much zeal as we would protect the lawful speech of any person of any faith, ethnicity, or creed.”
Torba said America “used to be like: a place where The People could speak freely regardless of their faith, ethnic background, or beliefs.”
“This is the America Gab is fighting to preserve. Apparently, Gov. Abbott doesn’t agree,” he said.
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This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
