Social media site favored by ‘alt-right’ drops Google lawsuit

Gab, the social media site favored by some in the so called alt-right as a “free speech” alternative to Twitter and Facebook, plans to drop its lawsuit against Google for banning its app from the Google Play Store.

Gab said in a blog post Sunday that it had been in “productive back-channel” discussions with Google since it filed the lawsuit against the internet search giant last month.

“We were encouraged to resubmit our app before the Android store, as opposed to going forth with continued expensive litigation, of which would have cost the company a great fortune in both time and resources,” the company said in the post. “Google has instead offered Gab an opportunity to resubmit our application for an appeal to be reviewed for placement on their Google Play Store, which we are in the process of doing as we speak.”

{mosads}Google suspended Gab from its app store in the days after a counterprotester was killed at an August white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. The company said that Gab violated its hate speech policy.

Gab had alleged in its lawsuit that Google has monopoly power over apps that it uses against competitors of its own services.

The social media site, which was founded to give a voice to users who had been suspended by Twitter, said on Sunday that in lieu of the lawsuit it would be shifting its focus to getting lawmakers and regulators to take action.

“We will be refocusing our efforts on lobbying Congress for action against monopolized tech giants, exploring options to file a formal complaint with the FTC, and building a new decentralized internet that prevents gatekeepers like Google from ever being in a position of centralized power again,” the blog post reads.

“We want to thank everyone in our community who made this happen, without your support this crusade against centralized tech giants would not be possible.”