Far-Right Social Network Gab Sues Google Over Removal From Play Store

Gab, a social media company known for attracting far-right users, has sued Google for banning the Gab app from the Play Store.

Google said last month that it banned the app over violations of Google's hate speech policies. The move came around the same time that Andrew Anglin, founder of white supremacist site The Daily Stormer, began using Gab to distribute articles.

Gab says it prohibits unlawful posts, including posts calling for violence, and ones with threatening language, but doesn't ban speech that's offensive but legal. Immediately after Google's move, Gab tweeted that users could still download the app to Android devices, but would have to visit Gab's home page -- as opposed to the Google Play Store -- to do so. 

Gab now alleges in an antitrust complaint that Google's explanation for the removal from the Play Store was a pretext for anticompetitive action. Gab alleges that it competes with Google, which has its own social offering (Google+), and has access to Twitter's firehose -- meaning access to all tweets as they are posted.

"Through the Google-Twitter Partnership and its continuing investment in Google+, Google has achieved its business goal of establishing a position in social media and ... in dominating the U.S. and global markets for mobile social news apps," Gab alleges in a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. "For these reasons, Google has a profound economic incentive to restrict competition in the market for mobile social news apps, as it has done via its pretextual ban of Gab from the Play Store."

Google said in a statement that Gab's claim is "baseless."

"In order to be on the Play Store, social networking apps need to demonstrate a sufficient level of moderation, including for content that encourages violence and advocates hate against groups of people," the company stated. "This developer is welcome to appeal the suspension if they've addressed the policy violations and are compliant with our Developer Program Policies."

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