Fosco Marotto (@fosco)

Thought experiment: There's an underserved audience, one that is discriminated against constantly, but is doing nothing wrong. You decide to start a business and create a place for them. When everyone else kicks them out, denies them service, attacks them... You let them in, welcome them. You can't please them all, but you do your best with what you have, and provide a service that meets their basic needs. As time goes on, and costs go up, it becomes increasingly harder to cover all the expenses. You ask the people using the service for help. Not because you want to get rich. Not because you want to put everything behind a paywall. But because servers cost money. Developers cost money. Lawyers cost money. Payment processing, infrastructure, security, bandwidth, electricity—all of it costs money. So you offer an optional membership. Nobody has to buy it. The basic service remains available to everyone. You ask the people who believe in what you've built: if you can afford to help keep this place alive, will you? Most say no. Some of those same people use the service every day. They value having it. They'd be angry if it disappeared. But when asked to contribute a few dollars toward keeping it running, the answer is still no. What would you tell the person running that business to do? That's not a hypothetical for us. Gab exists because we believe you should have a place to speak freely. Keeping that place online isn't free, and there isn't some giant corporation, billionaire benefactor, or bottomless pool of venture capital paying the bills. You are the business model. If Gab matters to you, and you're in a position to do so, become a PRO member.