Using a recent PayPal scandal as a springboard, Gab is promoting its new financial app Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Email Print Article Republish Article By Mira Fox October 14, 2022 The companies that manage our money have a lot of control over our lives. Credit card providers have refused payments to adult content sites, and Venmo put donations to Palestinian relief agencies on hold during the 2021 Gaza conflagration. But when PayPal appeared to fine users up to $2,500 for posting misinformation, right-wing media outlets, politicians and Twitter users got mad. PayPal has since released a statement saying it was an error and no one will be fined for misinformation. But the discourse gained a life of its own and PayPal users began to leave the service. A new competitor was waiting to welcome them: GabPay, the new payment arm of the right-wing social media site Gab. GabPay is more than just an app, though. It’s part of a larger project: an attempt to build an entirely parallel Christian economy, Christian internet and, eventually, Christian nationalist country. Andrew Torba, Gab’s founder, thanked PayPal for sending him “tens of thousands” of new GabPay users in a post on his site. Gab began in 2016 as a free speech-focused alternative social media site, infamous for hosting the Tree of Life shooter’s antisemitic screed. Like other unmoderated social media sites, it has become a melting pot of racist vitriol and antisemitic conspiracy theories. But this is the point, in part, for Gab. Christian nationalism, as a belief system, is open about exclusion of non-Christians. “If we are going to build a Christian movement it must be exclusively Christian and we can’t be afraid to say that out loud,” he wrote on Gab’s blog. PayPal blocked Gab in 2018 and Visa blocked it in 2020, in large part because of its near-complete refusal to moderate posts or content, including racism and exhortation to violence. Even Coinbase, one of the major sites for cryptocurrency — the main draw of which is anonymity and freedom — has blocked Gab. A need for revenue is part of what inspired GabPay — until it launched, the only way to pay for a GabPro account, donate or buy ads, was through check or wire transfer. Now, Gab can link users’ bank accounts directly, and is charging a 1.9% fee, plus 15 cents, on transactions.
via forward: This antisemitic social media site is ready to fund an alt-right Christian nationalist America