Gab, the favored social media network of America’s racists and anti-Semites, was back online Sunday and as full of hate speech as ever.
The site was dropped by hosting provider GoDaddy.com last weekend after the man accused of killing 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue was discovered to have an active account full of threatening, demeaning posts about Jews.
But Epik agreed to take over as the site’s host, as Gab announced in a triumphant Sunday tweet.
“Here is our press release to the media: You failed,” the tweet read. “We are back online. We grow stronger by the hour. Free speech lives at http://Gab.com . This is only the beginning. May God have mercy on you for what you people have done this past week. Peace, love, and prayers.”
The site’s feeds quickly filled up with the kind of hateful posts that it has become known for, including posts blaming Jews for the attack on one of their own sites of worship.
“Hey Jews! We’re back on Gab now,” wrote Chris Cantwell, one of the white nationalists arrested for assault following last summer’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. “Pretty soon the average citizen is going to figure out that we wouldn’t be having these problems in your absence.”
Gab is run by pro-Trump, anti-political-correctness crusader Andrew Torba. Though Torba, the company’s CEO, insists his site exists simply to encourage “the free flow of information online,” his refusal to moderate content has allowed it to become a cesspool of hate speech.
Rob Monster, founder and CEO of Gab’s new host Epik, defended his decision to “welcome” Gab in a blog post, claiming that “de-platforming is digital censorship.”
Quoting Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin, and Uncle Ben from “Spider-Man,” Monster wrote that he felt confident that Torba will serve as a “responsible steward” of the site.
Not really unexpected, so why advertise for them ?
Are there no hackers on the side of good?
Seems like a permanent denial-of-service attack is warranted.
They’re not talking about the killers, of course, but those who didn’t support the killers with “free speech” - aka, those non-terrorist non-murderers who are the real problem.
Hopefully someone investigating Right Wing Terrorism at the FBI has an account too.
Where “responsible” means “part of several ongoing criminal conspiracies.”