The CEO of the social media platform Gab revealed that the company refused to comply with a request from German police to provide data on a user who made two posts mocking the weight of a female member of parliament. Gab CEO Andrew Torba shared the request on X that demanded information about the user because he had made two posts that “sexualized the German politician” Ricarda Lang and “denigrated her weight.”
The official demand stated, “Throughout the sexualized and denigrated representation of ‘Ricarda Lang,’ the user attacks the honour of the politician and shows his own disrespect.”
The request further outlined a list of information required to identify and locate the user, who posted his comments in German and appeared to be a German citizen. This included the user’s account ID, registration date, IP address, full name, date of birth, display names, email addresses, phone numbers, billing address, and payment method.
Torba, however, dismissed this demand from German police. In his post, he called the demand “one of the more ridiculous foreign data requests that Gab received.” He also clarified that the company had “turned down” the request for the user’s information.
The revelation comes as European countries have gained attention in recent weeks for attempting to crack down on so-called “hate speech” on social media. When X owner Elon Musk scheduled a live-streamed interview with presidential candidate Donald Trump earlier this month, the European Union’s top digital enforcer sent a letter criticizing the decision and accused Musk of spreading “harmful content.” The letter came as UK police have threatened American social media users, saying that there will be consequences if they violate UK hate speech laws while posting on social media.
Additionally, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France last Saturday after a warrant was issued for his lack of moderation on the platform.
