Texas Republican Party Defies Gov. Greg Abbott over Free Speech Platform Gab

The Republican Party of Texas announced yesterday that it would keep its account on Gab, the free speech social network, saying: “The First Amendment still shines brightly in the Lone Star State.”

This came a day after the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott (R), branded the site “anti-Semitic” — an allegation that led to widespread condemnation of Abbott from conservatives on social media.

Gab strongly denied the charges in a statement, saying “there are many Jewish Gab users and customers, whose lawful speech we protect with just as much zeal as we would protect the lawful speech of any person of any faith, ethnicity, or creed.”

Gab is known for its uncompromising stance on free speech, and has built its own physical servers to avoid censorship by Amazon Web Services and other Big Tech cloud providers. Traffic to Gab has surged in recent months, as conservatives flee censorship on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

The Republican Party of Texas, currently chaired by former congressman Col. Allen West, known for his strong Tea Party credentials, has said it will keep its account on Gab.

The Vice Chair of the party, Cat Parks, had publicly called for the party to withdraw from Gab, but it appears the Texas GOP has rejected her pressure campaign to deplatform the party from the free-speech social network.

“The RPT will always fight censorship. We support the 1st Amendment, including free speech platforms & VC @CatParksTX ‘s right to criticize such,” said the official account of the Republican Party of Texas. 

“TexasGOP has no plan to deplatform from any of our social media accounts. The 1st Amendment still shines brightly in the Lone Star State.”

Responding to the controversy, Gab’s official Twitter account said “the Texas GOP stands with Gab. @GovAbbott is welcome to get on Gab as well. No hard feelings!”

Gab also posted a picture of Col. Allen West, current chairman of the Texas GOP, who is seen as a potential primary challenger to Abbott.

“The next governor of the great state of Texas,” said Gab.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.