A conservative Jewish group called on Pennsylvania’s GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastrianoto stop using the social media platform Gab to promote his campaign.
“Jewish voters expect candidates to condemn antisemitism, whether it comes from the far-left or the far-right — and to shun those who espouse it,” Matt Brooks, the Republican Jewish Coalition’s executive director, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“We strongly urge Doug Mastriano to end his association with Gab, a social network rightly seen by Jewish Americans as a cesspool of bigotry and antisemitism,” he added.
Gab was founded by Andrew Torba, who created the social media platform leaving Twitter where he had posted anti-semitic notions. Users of Gab are often extremists. Gab allows racism, antisemitism and other extreme views on the platform.
Mastriano’s political opponent, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, also condemned Mastriano’s use of Gab.
“Here are the facts: Doug Mastriano is recruiting extremists on Gab, the same social media platform that empowered the Tree of Life killer to murder 11 Jewish people in a Pittsburgh synagogue,” Shapiro said in a statement. “This is far from normal, and cannot be accepted as such. He is dangerous.”
