Gab CEO Andrew Torba has invited Elon Musk to join him on Gab’s board instead of buying Twitter, saying they can build a “free speech internet” together with Starlink as the world’s premiere free speech Internet service provider.
On Thursday morning, Musk announced his intention to buy the entirety of Twitter for around $43 billion, after initially purchasing just over 9% of the company at the start of April.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk said. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
The billionaire confirmed that the offer is his “best and final offer,” and that if it is not accepted, he would be forced to “reconsider” his position as a shareholder within the company. “Twitter has extraordinary potential,” he concluded. “I will unlock it.”
Shortly after, Andrew Torba, the CEO of free speech social media platform Gab, came in with a counteroffer for him to invest $2 billion in the company, and work together with Gab to “take down” the whole Big Tech system.
Counter offer: sell your 9% Twitter stock, invest $2B in Gab, join Gab's Board, and let's take them down.
— Gab.com (@getongab) April 14, 2022
“In order to provide a free speech platform you must also have free speech internet infrastructure,” Torba noted in his letter to Musk. The Gab CEO highlighted that Twitter is beholden to censorship laws in foreign countries, and is fully dependent on third parties to run their platform, something that Gab does not.
“We built our own servers, our own email services, our own payment processor, and so much more not because we wanted to, but because we had no choice if we were going to continue to exist,” Torba continued.
However, the company is still missing an internet service provider itself. “I fear that the next big leap of censorship is at the ISP level, with ISP’s blocking access to Gab.com,” he added, arguing that Musk can “solve that problem” via his Starlink system.
“Together we can build infrastructure for a free speech internet,” Torba concluded. “Gab has extraordinary potential. Let’s unlock it together.”
Of the free speech competitors to Twitter, Torba’s Gab is the largest by a wide margin.
With nearly 7 million hits per day, Gab receives more than twice the traffic Gettr, its closest competitor.
