Gab Rebuffs Congress' Request For User Records Regarding Jan. 6 Capitol Protest

The United States Congress' committee investigating the January 6 protest at the Capitol, sent a letter last week to free speech social media network Gab requesting records of user information related to and around the time of the protest.

The committee which sent similar letters to big tech giants like Facebook, Twitter, Google and ATT, is requesting records of posts and messages related to so-called election disinformation, planning an insurrection, violent domestic extremism, and foreign schemes to influence the election. Free speech advocates have criticized the request as unnecessarily broad and authoritarian.

In a detailed response published Wednesday, Gab CEO Andrew Torba essentially tells congress to pound sand. "We told Congress that Gab exists to promote freedom of speech," he wrote. "By this we mean all written or spoken expression protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  No more, no less.  We accordingly have a longstanding zero-tolerance policy towards threats of violence and use of our platform for criminal purposes."

Gab says it doesn’t track disinformation campaigns on the network, and keeps no records of internal discussion about political protests or so-called insurrection.

Gab told congress it’ll not hand over private user communications which it’s already shared with law enforcement. The free speech network argues that Congress would need a warrant or subpoena under the Stored Communications Act, or they can ask the Department of Justice directly.

It has been reported recently that the Federal Bureau of Investigation found no evidence that the January 6 Capitol protest was an organized insurrection plot.

According to Reuters, the FBI has found “scant evidence that the Jan 6 event at the U.S. Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result”, on social media or otherwise.