Y Combinator blacklists founder of Gab.ai

We support free speech, obviously. And we&#x27;re happy to fund people with all sorts of different political views.<p>We do not allow harassment, for which Andrew unfortunately set a new bar in our community. You can look at his Twitter or Facebook for plenty of public examples, to say nothing of what he&#x27;s said privately.<p>As per our previous comments, when a founder violates our ethics statement, we remove them from the community.

From the screenshot he himself provided [1], it looks like he was confronted about making people at YC feel unsafe, and responded by saying they &quot;shouldn&#x27;t be on the internet&quot;.<p>Contrarian views are one thing. Addressing the people who fund your company like a belligerent troll is another.<p>You&#x27;re entitled to free speech, you&#x27;re not entitled to a captive ear to hear it.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;ReFx2Mr.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;ReFx2Mr.png</a>

Not to sound conspiratorial, but isn&#x27;t Gab.ai trying to market itself as a censorship-free twitter clone for alt-right types? If so, what better way to generate brand awareness and users than by picking fights with liberals?

Freedom of speech does not mean one is free from the consequences of speech.<p>This is something a lot of young folks don&#x27;t seem to understand. You can say anything you want. Go for it. And you will own the consequences of what you said, whatever they might be.<p>I offer this as a general comment. Not taking sides on the issue highlighted by the post. I simply think it is important to point out this reality in case it is lost in all the nonsense this election has managed to produce.

It sounds like the &quot;build the wall&quot; comment was not the entire issue. This guy sounds like a huge asshole and that is what got him booted.

Important context: Said founder entered YC working on an ad optimization platform, but recently pivoted to Twitter for the alt-right.

sort of sad: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=vVI1NpCBF88" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=vVI1NpCBF88</a> (tldr; same guy on how he overcame bullying - the very thing he&#x27;s now doing)

Funny how YC is quickly becoming the antithesis of all the great PG essays..

Sounds like YC is building their own wall

well even if his ban wasn&#x27;t deserved... he made it deserving, just watching his twitter account (not facebook etc), looks like he is somebody that is not a great guy and can&#x27;t stand such things. I mean he actually posted a picture of him self and his middlefinger pointing at ycombinator?! seriously he is a hater and not somebody that should be taken seriously.<p>insulting people or a group of people is not free speech anymore it&#x27;s actually a crime.

I wonder how different he must have been for YC to make the call to fund him in the first place. Even watching his old YouTube videos, I can tell something is &quot;off&quot; with his personality (maybe confirmation bias at play).

The submitted title was &quot;Y Combinator blacklists founder of Gab.ai for saying “build the wall”&quot;, but we shortened it because it doesn&#x27;t sound like that was the reason.<p>(I don&#x27;t have any information about this beyond skimming the current thread and looking at a few of the things people have linked to.)

Torba, if you&#x27;re reading this, consider that Curtis Yarvin&#x27;s Tlon receives angel investment from well known SV VCs and he also posts here regularly.<p>So the guy who literally invented neoreaction isn&#x27;t suppressed by YC because of his views then it is pretty unlikely you&#x27;re getting persecuted because of yours.<p>Nick Denton constantly overreached in using freedom of speech as a cover for just simply fucking with people until it blew up in his face. Don&#x27;t be the alt-right&#x27;s version of that. You can afford to be magnanimous and give some gesture of conciliation.<p>Do you really want to be giving Pao material to work with?<p>Fighting censorship is serious business, forget this teacup war, nobody will remember any of it in a year.

Reminds me of<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11633270#11633517" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11633270#11633517</a>