Pressure on Microsoft over alt-right racist forum

Telegraph investigation uncovers material inciting hatred on American social network Gab.ai

DOZENS of pages of racist and anti-semitic material are being hosted by Microsoft, an investigation by The Daily Telegraph has found.

A number of posts inciting racial hatred, including calls to set Muslims and MPS’ homes on fire, assault transgender people and share anti-semitic slurs, are being kept online by Microsoft as part of its cloud services. The firm, which is one of the largest in the world with a market value of £645bn (£820bn), provides the IT services for a social network called Gab.ai and benefits from a subscription fee. One post, in Gab’s “Brexit” group, displays a rifle with the caption “w---- and n----- repellent”.

Another claims that Jewish people were responsible for “all labour and sex slavery” and is illustrated by a cartoon of an old man with a large nose.

Gab looks similar to Facebook but is aimed at bastions of the “alt-right” and free speech movement. It was founded by former Silicon Valley engineer Andrew Torba after he felt he was being penalised for having conservative views and had suffered censorship among the “liberal elite” working for technology companies.

It claims to have 250,000 users worldwide, and has a number of British-specific topics and groups including Brexit and the British Nationalist Party. Gab can be viewed without an account, and those wishing to post only need an email address and password, and can sign up from anywhere in the world.

Gab describes itself as an “ad-free social network dedicated to preserving individual liberty, the freedom of speech, and the free flow of information on the internet”. However, it has become a haven for thousands who use it to post offensive material that would otherwise be flagged on Facebook, Twitter or Youtube. When approached by The Telegraph, a Gab spokesman said: “We don’t do interviews with fake news outlets that employ sophist political activists pretending to be journalists. Figure it out for yourself.”

Moments later, the official Gab account posted a picture of the Colosseum on Twitter, writing: “Back in the day they would have just thrown dishonest journalists in here with the gladiators. They would have lasted all of four seconds.”

Later, they sent a tweet sharing screenshots from The Telegraph’s correspondence, rather than responding to emails, in which they stated: “Gab’s guidelines regarding direct and specific threats and terrorism are very clear. If a post clearly, directly and incontrovertibly infringes on the safety of another user or individual(s), we will take action. If not, guess what: Brandenburg v Ohio says it is free speech. If you believe a post is directly threatening someone (ie “I’m going to come to your house right now and do X to you with Y”) you should use our reporting tool to flag it.

“If your feelings are hurt by ‘mean words’, you should tell someone who cares and go cry about it.”

Microsoft cautioned Gab after it was made aware of a number of anti-semitic posts on the site last week, including one that suggested Jewish people should be treated as livestock. Mr Torba removed the comments, but also posted “there is much worse on Twitter/facebook/reddit about white people that is allowed to stay”, in a blog post explaining his actions.

Mr Torba said that Gab was actively looking to fund its own infrastructure so it was no longer under “Microsoft’s 48-hour game”.

A Microsoft spokesman said: “We believe we have an important responsibility to ensure that our services are not abused by people and groups seeking to incite violence against others.

“Our policies rightly prohibit this type of content, and we expect Gab.ai to abide by these policies if it wishes to use our service. Gab.ai is of course free to choose otherwise and work with another cloud service provider or host this content itself.”