Social media site used by suspect may be back in business
Picks up new host after week in dark
The social media site used by the suspect in the Squirrel Hill synagogue shooting for anti-Semitic rants before entering the Tree of Life synagogue will have a new domain host soon.
According to a Saturday blog post titled “Why Epik welcomed Gab.com,” Robert Monster, founder and CEO of the web domain hosting company Epik, said that the social media platform has “a right to be online.” Gab.com appeared to be accessible again Sunday night after being offline for a week.
“De-Platforming is Digital Censorship. Blacklisting is Digital Shunning,” Mr. Monster wrote.
An Epik representative said Sunday that the company’s statement on hosting Gab.com is included in the blog post. A request to speak to Mr. Monster has not been answered.
Web domain hosting company GoDaddy dropped Gab.com just two days following the Oct. 27 shooting at the synagogue, citing violations of terms of service.
“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,” a company statement read.
Robert Bowers, 46, who is accused and charged in the shooting that left 11 worshippers dead, apparently posted anti-Semitic rants on Gab.com in the weeks and hours before the attack.
According to U.S. State Department records, Epik Inc. is an active corporation based in Sammamish, Wash., approximately 20 miles east of Seattle. Records show Mr. Monster and Cliff Beer as “governors” of the company.
Mr. Monster’s blog post, which is adorned with quotes from Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, cites ancient Greek philosophy on inalienable rights and the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Watts v. the United States to explain why his company has taken on Gab.com.
“I did not take the decision lightly to accept this domain registration, I look forward to partnering with a young, and once brash, CEO who is courageously doing something that looks useful,” Mr. Monster wrote regarding his meeting with Gab.com CEO Andrew Torba.
“As I reflect on my own journey as a truth-seeking tech entrepreneur, I have no doubt that Andrew will continue to develop not only as tech entrepreneur but also as a responsible steward — one that can balance bravado with diplomacy and who tempers courage with humility.”
In the weeks leading up to the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, Mr. Bowers posted anti-Semitic messages on Gab.com regarding synagogues participating in the National Refugee Shabbat, organized by HIAS, a Jewish refugee resettlement agency contracted by the U.S. State Department.
Dor Hadash, one of the three congregations that meet at the Tree of Life building, had participated in the refugee-welcoming service, in which 300 synagogues in 32 states and Canada participated, according to HIAS.
On the morning of Oct. 27, Mr. Bowers posted on Gab.com, “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. ... I’m going in.”
Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS, said Tuesday that Gab.com was not on the organization’s radar, and he said the site and others like it are “echo chambers where people just get angrier and angrier and angrier about falsehoods.”
He said he would like to see more government enforcement for what he called online hate speech.