Andrew Torba, the founder of far-right social media platform Gab, announced that only paying Gab users will be able to upload media to the site starting in March.
Many Gab users were outraged by the update.
Gab is known as a “haven for hate and discrimination,” under the guise of the freest of free speech, considered one of the biggest bastions of antisemitism online.
By forcing people to pay, the policy change could lessen the amount of harmful media uploaded to the site, as numerous users balked in the comments over the new price structure.
“We will no longer be supporting free media uploads and hosting huge amounts of data for free,” Torba said in a Gab post yesterday. “Every user will be able to speak freely with words, but if you want the privilege of Gab hosting and an endless stream of large images and videos you’ll need to help support the service.”
He claimed Gab “faced an onslaught of bot accounts over the past few months that we believe are purposely uploading tons of media files on purpose to flood our storage space,” which they can no longer afford to pay for.
A quick scroll through Gab shows that the types of images its users upload include those that allege deep state conspiracies about Washington, D.C. and nefarious acts by Jews.
But lately, images calling for a Gab boycott started populating the site, reacting to Torba’s recent announcement.
Since Torba’s announcement, many Gab users have called it a bad decision, saying that it will drive people from the platform.
“This is dumb. If it’s that big a deal, throw away media from non-PRO after a month or something,” Gab user @danmac responded to Torba. “Nobody asked you to preserve all that crap forever.”
“I am not paying you money to upload MEME PICTURES and a few minutes of videos,” @AlbertCurits wrote. “NO WAY!”
“If I am charged to make a post I will leave Gab,” @walkintruth said. “I think you are making a big mistake.”
While the change could make money for the founder, the site could also wind up more a more insular, hardcore community, attracting the people who would pay to post odious pictures.
Others accused Torba of wasting funds on Gab AI, a chatbot that Torba has boasted can generate photos of white people after Google’s chatbot, Gemini, struggled with the topic. Gab AI also doesn’t have “hate speech filters” and denied the Holocaust.
“Maybe stop the Gab A.I. nonsense and you’ll free up space,” @BananaMilkSauce said.
In response to those claims, Torba posted again, denying that Gab AI is the reason for the policy change. In fact, he said the chatbot was profitable on its own.
“Many of you doubted my vision for AI, and mocked me for months, but you were completely wrong and I was correct,” Torbo wrote. “There is a massive market need for Gab AI and it grows bigger by the day.”