Tuesday night, Tucker Carlson used his prime time spot on Fox News to promote a white nationalist social media site, Gab.
The New York Times described Gab as “a digital safe space for the far right, where white nationalists, conspiracy-theorist YouTubers, and minivan majority moms can gather without liberal interference.” The Guardian called Gab a “hate-filled echo chamber of racism and conspiracy theories.” Gab’s symbol is a frog, an image that has been widely adopted by white nationalists.
It has served as a place of refuge for online racists who get kicked out of more mainstream platforms, including Milo Yiannopoulos, Richard B. Spencer, and Ricky Vaughn.
Ostensibly, Carlson hosted the site’s founder, Andrew Torba, because the Gab app was removed from the Google Play store. Google said it removed the app because Gab was serving as a vehicle “for content that encourages violence and advocates hate against groups of people.” Apple has never accepted the Gab app.
But Tucker’s segment went far beyond support for “free speech.” At the end of the segment, Carlson encouraged his audience to join Gab, calling it “the alternative.”
Here are a few things that were posted to Gab in the two hours prior to this article’s publication.
Torba, whose Twitter account was suspended, was also “kicked out of Y Combinator, the influential Silicon Valley startup accelerator, for violating its harassment policy.”