Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Sick US website defends Meghan race hate
Evil posts target Harry and wife days after Brit pair are jailed for the same thing
A SICK website on which Neo-Nazis made terrorist threats to Prince Harry is refusing to take down more anti-Royal race hate posted by Brits.
One vile message posted on Gab.com in the wake of the attacks on Harry says: “The only good royal is a dead royal.”
Other users have uploaded cruel, mocked-up cartoons targeted at his wife Meghan Markle’s mixed-race heritage.
Yet the American site’s bosses say they will not take them down – insisting they defend the right of British extremists to have their say.
They hit out just days after Britons Michael Szewczuk, 19, and Oskar DunnKoczorowski, 18, were jailed for encouraging terrorism via posts on the website.
Szewczuk had shared a poster showing Harry having a gun pointed at his head against a blood-splattered background. A caption said: “See ya later, race traitor.”
Despite a backlash over the outpouring of hate, the very same propaganda is still circulating unchecked on Gab.com.
RANTS
When challenged by the Sunday Mirror the US-based site defiantly promised to offer British extremists “protection from state interference”.
Gab did remove posts by Szewczuk and Dunn-Koczorowski after their arrests. But last night bosses told Mirror investigators they would not be removing any more of the “offensive” posts.
Within hours of the two Brits being sentenced, messages appeared on Gab accusing Harry, the Duke of Sussex, of “polluting the Royal line”, along with memes of black babies.
Other shameful posts aimed at Meghan use the “N” word, call her a “b***h” and accuse Harry of being an enemy of the state. Two users shared copies of the image of Harry and the gun.
Politicians and charities last night called for the site to be shut down or at least subjected to tougher regulation.
Gab.com is run by Texan millionaire Andrew Torba, who claims the haven for white supremacists simply protects the right to free speech. After viewing our findings, a spokesman for the site, which has over 850,000 members, defended its users before accusing our reporter of “whining”.
He said: “US free speech jurisprudence protects offensive and ‘hateful’ speech because it recognises that unpopular speech, not popular speech, is what needs protection from state interference if society is to remain free, which England is not. We will not take any content down unless it is illegal in the United States.
“Our legal team, not whining complaints from reporters, makes those determinations.”
The extremist site was linked to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting last October. Suspect Robert Bowers allegedly posted his final messages on Gab before killing 11 people.
Torba later said the site had handed over information about his account to police but continued to justify its liberal approach to hate preaching, bragging: “Because he was on Gab, law enforcement now have definitive evidence for a motive. They would not have had this evidence without Gab.”
Portsmouth University student Szewczuk, from Leeds, was jailed for four years and three months for possessing terrorist material and encouraging terrorism by posting images and links to Gab.
He and labourer Dunn-Koczorowski, from north-west London, were members of the right-wing Sonnenkrieg Division – described as the “third generation” of
banned Nazi terror organisation National Action.
Dunn-Koczorowski was given an 18-month detention and training order after admitting encouraging terrorism.
Labour MP Wes Streeting, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for British Muslims, called for Gab to be shut down, saying: “It’s time something more was done about sites like Gab. There’s a fine line between freedom of speech, which is oppressed in dictatorships, and speech which incites hatred and violence.”
Patrik Hermansson, of advocacy group Hope not Hate, added: “Meghan Markle and Prince Harry quickly become targets of hate by the far right online. Gab is one of the platforms where this happens because of its direct attempts to market itself as a home to the far right online, the usage of far-right rhetoric by its founder, and its unwillingness to moderate hate speech.”
The latest scandal comes months after Kensington Palace ramped up its battle against online abuse targeting the Duchess of Sussex. Northampton University lecturer Dr Paul Jackson, who specialises in the far right, said extremists turn to the likes of Gab because Twitter and Facebook have tightened their regulations.
He said: “It’s very difficult to apply UK law to Gab because it is based in America. It attracts those who feel they are being silenced elsewhere.
“Sites like this allow people to gather online where they can share ideas and material. This has the potential to lead to violent radicalisation.” Gab lost around £750,000 between its launch in 2016 and 2018. Torba, worth around £4million, blamed everything from leftists to the deep state.
When asked if Gab would remove racist posts, a spokesman – a member of the legal team – added: “Certain offensive memes portraying the Royal Family are in circulation across the internet and not just on Gab.”
It’s time something more was done about sites which incite hatred and violence...
MP WES STREETING CALLING FOR GAB TO BE SHUT DOWN