Free Speech Network 'Gab AI' Sues Google for Removing App from Play Store
You may recall Gab from our show last week (see #226 POLITIFACT SCAM EXPOSED! Nigel Farage and Andrew Torba). In case you need a bit of refreshing, it's pro-free speech social media site. One where Zuckerberg and his pals can't sift through posts and censor all willy nilly. Naturally, Google has taken issue with it. It didn't take long for them to remove the app from the Play Store. But Gab isn't down for being pushed around by the censorship bullies. Now they're fighting back:
Free speech social media site Gab AI, Inc. filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Google for violations of the Clayton Act and Sherman Act. The lawsuit stems from Google removing Gab from its Google Play Android App Store on spurious grounds of "hate speech" arising from posts by users.Google did not accuse Gab of hate speech, but used third party content as a pretext to justify its own business ends.
According to Gab's attorney, Marc Randazza, Google's conduct is a straightforward violation of the antitrust laws: "Google Play and Android have monopoly power against Gab. Google's market, and Google's apps YouTube and Google+ compete directly against Gab. 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."
So it seems Google has a vested interest in taking down an up and coming competitor. Also Google seems to just hate free speech in general. They have every reason in the world to be opposed to Gab's gabbiness.
The search engine giant could use a little pushback (see James Damore: Openly Shaming Men Totally Fine in Google Meetings and Google Fires Employee Who Penned Diversity Critical Memo. They're an Internet Super Power...). Google and Facebook are titans of the interwebs and they've been setting their sights on free speech. This is simply the latest occurrence of quashing those who dare to disagree.
Godspeed to the folks over at Gab for suing Google's butts off.
Here's a sneak peek at what we're dealing with...
