EXCLUSIVE: Congress Enlists GAO for “Domestic Extremist” Study on Social Media and Gaming Platforms

Gab News can exclusively report that members of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security have requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examine the utilization of social media and gaming platforms by “domestic extremists.”

Earlier this week Gab received an email from the GAO asking us to take part in the study and provide information on our business and users. Gab will not be participating in this study and will not be providing any information to the GAO. Our policies on First Amendment-protected speech are well known and are the industry standard for free speech online. We will not scapegoat our users or undermine the operation of our business to demonize normal Americans who have serious concerns with the direction of the nation and our leaders.

Our response to the GAO was as follows:

The most violent domestic extremist content we see on the Internet comes from the President of the United States, who is funding a meat grinder in Ukraine, cheering the burning of American cities in 2020, jailing peaceful protestors from January 6th, and openly advocating child genital mutilation from his Twitter account. We suggest you start there. Otherwise, we’re not interested in your study. 

In the interest of transparency we will share the full request below so the public is aware of how their tax dollars are being spent.

Good afternoon,

We are reaching out from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO is an independent, non-partisan agency that evaluates federal programs for the U.S. Congress.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security requested that GAO examine domestic violent extremists’ use of social media and gaming platforms. As part of our work, we are interested in hearing from a range of social media and gaming companies about their platforms, including community guidelines, and procedures for coordinating with external stakeholders if applicable.

We have selected Gab as part of our study. We would appreciate receiving your perspectives by responding to the questions below. Please note that we will not attribute information to any company representative by name in our public report. If we use information received from Gab in our report, we will send those statements to you for review, including to determine whether you would like each statement to appear as “representatives of Gab” or “representatives of a social media company.”

Your responses are valuable in helping us inform the U.S. Congress about online platforms’ approaches to handling violent extremist content, and we really appreciate your time.

Please provide written responses by replying to this email by Thursday, July 13.

1.    Please provide an overview of Gab’s goals as a platform and how it generates its revenue (e.g. user fees, advertising, data sales).

2.    In its Terms of Service, Gab states that its policy is “to allow all speech which is permitted by the First Amendment and to disallow all speech which is not permitted by the First Amendment,” however the terms do not explicitly mention any policies related to violent extremist content. To what extent does Gab have policies or take action to limit the spread of violent extremist content that may appear on the platform and is not illegal under U.S. law? How, if at all, does Gab define this type of content?

3.    Other than Section 230 (47 U.S.C. § 230) and policies related to child sexual abuse material, what laws and regulations, if any, does Gab consider in making decisions about domestic violent extremism that may appear on the platform?

4.    What strategies and tools, if any, does Gab use to identify and mitigate domestic violent extremist content (e.g. automated or human reviews, user reporting)?

a.    What redress mechanisms, if any, exist for users who believe their speech has been unfairly or inappropriately stifled?

5.    What challenges, if any, does Gab face in identifying and mitigating domestic violent extremist content?

6.    To the extent that Gab becomes aware of a potential threat on its platform, what actions, if any, does Gab take in response?

7.    To what extent does Gab work with federal, state, or local agencies on issues related to domestic violent extremist content (e.g. notifying law enforcement of threats, partnerships or coordination, information-sharing)?

a.    Please describe the nature of the coordination, if any, including which agencies you work with.

8.    What, if anything, would you like federal agencies to know or do related to addressing domestic violent extremism on social media and gaming platforms?

Thank you in advance for assisting us with our work. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

GAO Social Media Study team

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