(Article by Evan James republished from BigLeaguePolitics.com)

On Wednesday Gov. Greg Abbott denounced the alternative social media platform as “anti-Semitic,” for whatever reason. It’s an absurd accusation, and it didn’t take long for Twitter users to notice that the Texas GOP had a verified Gab account and promoted it back on January 23:

https://twitter.com/TexasGOP/status/1353112047970443266

In response, Texas GOP Vice-Chair Cat Parks asked the party to deactivate its Gab account in a statement. She claimed that multiple comments on the posts of the Texas GOP’s Gab account “contained anti-semitic and racist tropes” and that “this was a common theme on Gab.”

“We cannot allow the Republican Party of Texas’ page on Gab to be a corkboard for anti-American values,” she added. “The Republican Party of Texas will not tolerate antisemitism and racism to proliferate under our watch. The Democrats may struggle to denounce blatant antisemitism from their own lawmakers, but Republicans in Texas do not share that issue. We fully condemn any form of antisemitism and racism.”

Parks concluded by hedging her commitment to “free speech,” saying that “we will be able to remain committed to that fight on the platforms that a majority of our voters are on,” and by formally requesting the party’s communications team to deactivate the Gab account.

Thankfully they did not listen. The Texas GOP tweeted the following late Thursday afternoon: “The RPT will always fight censorship. We support the 1st Amendment, including free speech platforms & VC @CatParksTX’s right to criticize such. Texas GOP has no plan to deplatform from any of our social media accounts. The 1st Amendment still shines brightly in the Lone Star State.”

https://twitter.com/TexasGOP/status/1370134383504588805

Read more at: BigLeaguePolitics.com and FirstAmendment.news.