In recent months, Doug Mastriano consultant and Gab CEO Andrew Torba has frequently signaled to his users that the social media platform is a home for antisemites by reposting attacks on Jews. Torba has highlighted Gab users who have claimed that Jews are “subversive”; in control of the government, media, and financial institutions; and Christ killers. He’s also reposted a conspiracy theory blaming Jews for “white genocide” and praise of Gab for offering “differing opinions” on the Holocaust.
Mastriano is a QAnon supporter and January 6 insurrectionist who is the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor.
He said in a government filing that he paid $5,000 to Gab for “consulting” services on April 28. The Huffington Post’s Christopher Mathias reported that the payment seems to be for new followers, as “every new account currently being created on Gab automatically follows Mastriano.” (Torba has denied this while Mastriano has responded by retweeting someone calling the strategy “creative campaigning.”) Mastriano has also praised Torba, who has endorsed Mastriano.
Gab is a social media platform that caters to far-right users, including those that have been banned from other social media sites. The site also courts and highlights white nationalist and antisemitic content creators. Additionally, it has sponsored events by white nationalist organizations, including Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) and the virulently racist website VDare. (Torba spoke at AFPAC in February.)
Gab has been an echo chamber and supportive home for violent and racist users, including the gunman who allegedly killed 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Network Contagion Research Institute director Joel Finkelstein said there was little or no pushback from others on Gab.com when [the alleged shooter] posted or shared anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant slogans and memes. There was plenty of encouragement.”
A June 1 report by the Stanford Internet Observatory analyzed content on Gab and concluded that “extreme anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic content is rife, with open praise of Nazism, encouragement of violence against minorities, and ‘Great Replacement’ narratives. Many of the memes cited by the Buffalo shooter's manifesto are indistinguishable from content on Gab, and such content appears even in ‘mainstream’ user groups.”
The Stanford report added: “The constant vilification and dehumanization of Jews and other minorities on Gab makes further real-world attacks against these groups increasingly likely, even without centralized efforts to organize attacks or specific instructions to do so.”
Torba’s Gab account essentially acts as the voice of the site and has over 3.6 million followers (new users automatically follow him). Torba, who has a history of antisemitism, uses his account to frequently amplify attacks on Jews by his users. Here are numerous examples from this year alone:
- Torba reposted a conspiracy theory video attacking Jewish people for “white genocide,” including through the Jewish nonprofit HIAS -- the same conspiracy theory the alleged Gab mass shooter referenced.
- Torba reposted another Gab user who said he made a “very good and true tweet” attacking “subversive Jewish lawyers and propagandists.”
- Torba reposted a Gab user claiming that “there has never been a more privileged and protected group than the modern jew, and unlike talking about ‘globalists’ or the ‘NWO,’ if you speak out about them, you will be attacked.”
- Torba reposted a user’s praise of Gab for showcasing “differing opinions” on the Holocaust.
- Torba reposted a user complaining about Jewish influence in government, business, and the media.
- Torba reposted a user (“Racial Consciousness”) complaining about a U.S. House measure that condemned antisemitism and suggesting it shows Jews are “ruling over you.”
- Torba reposted an attack on Jewish people over abortion.
- Torba reposted a Gab user arguing that Jews are responsible for antisemitism against them.
- Torba reposted a Gab user writing: “The Jews killed Christ.”
- Torba reposted a user stating that “Ukraine's ‘democracy’ is just as jewish, fake, and gay as ours is.”
- Torba reposted a user attacking Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager for being Jewish.
Torba reposted a conspiracy theory video attacking Jewish people for “white genocide,” including through the Jewish nonprofit HIAS -- the same conspiracy theory the alleged Gab mass shooter referenced. White nationalists have claimed that Jewish elites are carrying out “white genocide” through means such as immigration. Before allegedly carrying out his attack, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter subscribed to the “white genocide” conspiracy theory and attacked the Jewish American nonprofit organization HIAS on Gab.
