The media went into panic mode Thursday after President Donald Trump’s son Eric followed the account of Twitter’s social media competitor Gab.

On Thursday, many noticed Eric had subscribed to follow @GetOnGab, the official account of Gab which promotes itself as an open source, decentralized, free speech social media platform.

EricTrump appears to be following @getongab. (This bot cannot tell if it was a new follow or the result of the account being reactivated.) — Trump Alert (@TrumpsAlert) August 8, 2019

Judging by Eric’s most recent post, the catalyst appears to have been Twitter’s suspension of Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign team Wednesday, which was locked after sharing a video showing violent leftists rallying outside his home.

“. @Twitter is an absolute mess @Team_Mitch,” Eric wrote Thursday, shortly before he followed Gab.

The follow prompted leftists to claim Eric was following a dangerous social media site that harbors white supremacists.

“Gab is a fringe social media site that caters to white supremacists,” claimed ThinkProgress founder Judd Legum, adding, “The white supremacist who murdered 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue used Gab.”

.@EricTrump just started following Gab's twitter account. Gab is a fringe social media site that caters to white supremacists The white supremacist who murdered 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue used Gab pic.twitter.com/rKB6QmteI8 — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) August 8, 2019

NBC News reporter Ben Collins chimed in, saying, “A reminder that Gab is where the Tree of Life Synagogue shooter posted mountains of anti-Semitic screeds, convinced the ‘migrant caravan’ was an ‘invasion’ plotted by a Jewish cabal, before writing ‘Screw the optics, I’m going in.’”

A reminder that Gab is where the Tree of Life Synagogue shooter posted mountains of anti-Semitic screeds, convinced the “migrant caravan” was an “invasion” plotted by a Jewish cabal, before writing “Screw the optics, I’m going in.”https://t.co/sh28JAtBDF — Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) August 8, 2019

Gab responded to the criticism by pointing out that numerous mass shooters had relied on other social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat in the past to publicize their views and sometimes their attacks.

Meanwhile Gab users defended the platform, and encouraged Eric to stay the course.

While there’s no indication Eric has created a Gab account, founder Andrew Torba says the media freakout is about the establishment fearing it could lose its stranglehold on information.

“Because they know that if Trump joins Gab they will no longer have control over the online narrative via Silicon Valley proxy,” Torba wrote on Gab Thursday.

Follow the author on Gab: https://gab.ai/adansalazar

On Twitter: Follow @AdanSalazarWins

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adan.salazar.735

On Minds: https://www.minds.com/adan_infowars

Watch – Founder Of Gab: Big Tech Now Trying To Ban Competing Websites

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