'You are wrong about this': Trump angered a social network popular with the far-right with his attack on bitcoin
- US President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that he's not a fan of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and wants to regulate them.
- This angered Gab, a social media site popular with the far-right, in part because of its relaxed approach to hate-speech on its platform.
- Gab said "Bitcoin is free speech money," and accused Jared Kushner of being behind Trump's tweet.
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Social media platform Gab, which is popular with the far-right, has come after Donald Trump over his stance on cryptocurrency.
Trump tweeted on Thursday that cryptocurrencies (including Facebook's upcoming digital currency Libra) are "not money" and should be regulated like traditional banks.
The tweet followed a social media summit at the White House, where the president Trump renewed his accusations of conservative censorship against Facebook and Twitter.
Although he didn't mention his stance on cryptocurrency at the summit, Trump appeared to foreshadow the attack, saying he was planning a "very important statement."
Social media site Gab was quick to voice its discontent. "You are wrong about this. Bitcoin is free speech money," it tweeted. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are popular in libertarian circles because they is built on a decentralized system, needing no banks or intermediaries to complete transactions.
It also posited that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner was behind the tweet. "Jared, give the phone back to Donald," Gab tweeted.
Gab bills itself as a free-speech platform, and as an alternative to Facebook and Twitter where it believes users are censored. It became notorious after it emerged that the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, who killed 11 people and injured six in October last year, was a frequent poster of anti-Semitic content. Following the shooting Gab was temporarily shut down after web-hosting company GoDaddy cut ties with the site over its failure to police hate-speech.
Gab also criticized Trump in a statement for populating his social media summit with "safe' z-list MAGA celebrities and cheerleaders." Gab itself was not invited to the summit.