Technology

Alt-right Twitter rival may lose its web domain

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The social media service Gab, which bills itself as Twitter for the alt-right, is on the verge of being booted from the internet.

Andrew Torba, CEO of the company, posted on Monday that “Gab’s domain registrar has given us 5 days to transfer our domain or they will seize it.”

The domain registrar Gab hosts its site with, Asia Registry, told the social media site in an email that it prohibits “use of a domain name for unlawful purposes.” It claimis that Gab violates Australian anti-discrimination laws, according to an email that Gab posted on Twitter. Though Gab is based in the U.S., Asia Registry based in Australia.

{mosads}Gab has marketed itself as an alternative to Twitter for those users who believe that major tech firms suppress conservative voices. It’s attracted members of the alt-right like Milo Yiannopoulos, who was banned from Twitter in 2016 for leading a bullying campaign against actress Leslie Jones.

Torba said that he was hopeful Gab would be able to continue running through https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/ as a “safe haven.”

NearlyFreeSpeech.net’s about page reads that because of its  “libertarian Terms & Conditions of Service” the domain hosting service allows “many things that other hosting companies do not.”

NearlyFreeSpeech’s commitment to its credo was tested in 2012 when it hosted a website that displayed the names, home addresses and personal telephone numbers of MPs, farmers and others who were said to be in support of a controversial British policy on badger culling. The domain hosting service hosted the site even as UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pushed it to take the site down.

Gab pushing from Asia Registry comes on the heels of the social media company filing an antitrust lawsuit against Google.

Prior to the suit, Google had suspended Gab from its Google Play app store in August. Google said it removed Gab because of its insufficient “level of moderation, including for content that encourages violence and advocates hate against groups of people.” The company said the app violates the store’s terms of service.

“Google Play and Android have monopoly power in the app store market, and Google’s apps YouTube and Google+ compete directly against Gab,” Marc Randazza, an attorney for Gab, said in a statement last week. “Google’s intimate partnership with Twitter, which also competes against Gab, makes Google’s control of all Android apps available through the Play Store a serious restraint of trade issue.”

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