Gab.com Down As GoDaddy Warns It Is Pulling Far-Right Site’s Domain After Synagogue Shooting
The controversial social network platform with a far-right following that was thrust into national news this week after it was linked to the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting has pulled its website offline after domain provider GoDaddy gave it 24 hours to move to another service.
Other companies including PayPal, Medium, Stripe, and Joyent blocked Gab over the weekend after it emerged that suspect Robert Bowers, 46, who is accused of shooting dead 11 people and injuring several others at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday, had a history of posting anti-Semitic messages on Gab, The Verge has reported.
“We have informed Gab.com that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service,” GoDaddy told The Verge in a statement. “In response to complaints received over the weekend, GoDaddy investigated and discovered numerous instances of content on the site that both promotes and encourages violence against people.”
In its verified Twitter account, Gab said yesterday that the site “will likely be down for weeks” following the decision by hosting provider Joyent to pull support. Gab‘s official website contends it “will be inaccessible for a period of time” because it “is under attack.”
“Gab.com is under attack,” the message on its website reads. “We have been systematically no-platformed by App Stores, multiple hosting providers, and several payment processors. We have been smeared by the mainstream media for defending free expression and individual liberty for all people and for working with law enforcement to ensure that justice is served for the horrible atrocity committed in Pittsburgh. Gab will continue to fight for the fundamental human right to speak freely.”
Bowers was a frequent user of Gab, a platform on which he often used antisemitic language that would have been blocked on other social media platforms, such as Facebook, as the Inquisitr previously reported. A central element of Gab’s cornerstone principles as a platform is a lack of interference in the freedom of speech expressed by its users.
Antisemitic, racist and sexist content, as well as threads about conspiracy theories and Nazism, abound on Gab, though the platform also includes more mainstream topics like music and art, as per the Inquisitr report. Gab denounced the attack on the synagogue on Saturday in its now-suspended account on Medium.
“Gab unequivocally disavows and condemns all acts of terrorism and violence. This has always been our policy. We are saddened and disgusted by the news of violence in Pittsburgh and are keeping the families and friends of all victims in our thoughts and prayers,” the Inquisitr quoted over the weekend.
