
 
 An archived post from the social media site Gab, which is believed to be written by Pittsburgh shooting suspect Robert D. Bowers. HIAS, mentioned above, is a nonprofit group that aids refugees (AP/AP) 
 
 There was a blue check mark next to Robert Bowers’s name, meaning that the social media account was verified. His bio said that “jews are the children of satan,” his banner image a clear reference to a white supremacist meme. His last message, posted Saturday morning, read, “Screw your optics, I’m going in.” 
 
 The account is believed to belong to the same Robert Bowers who is suspected of opening fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11 people and wounding six others. 
 
 The profile, which has since been removed, lived on Gab, a social media platform that has become a haven for white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other adherents to extreme ideologies that have found themselves increasingly unwelcome on Twitter and Facebook. 
 
 [The lives lost in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting] 
 
 Founder Andrew Torba has long said Gab is simply a “free speech” platform for anyone who wants to join, and has responded aggressively to characterizations otherwise. But the platform’s history is tied to the white supremacists and other far-right figures who joined in its first months and have contributed to Gab’s growth. 
 
 In the wake of the Pittsburgh attack, Gab and Torba have girded themselves for war. On his Gab account, Torba criticized mainstream media stories about his site and promised users that it would survive the increased attention. After Gab was banned from PayPal and received notice from Joyent, its hosting provider, that it would pull their service, Torba wrote early Sunday that “GAB IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE I don’t care what we have to do, I don’t care what it takes. We will build everything from the ground up if we have to. " 
 
 Torba’s updates have kept Gab’s users in the loop on the drama: Gab’s chief technology officer Ekrem Büyükkaya announced Sunday that he was stepping down because the “attacks from the American press have been relentless for two years now and have taken a toll on me personally.” Later that morning, Torba said he’d secured a new host for his site. 
 
 Medium, the publishing platform, has suspended Gab’s account there, according to Gab. And GoDaddy informed Gab that they had violated their terms of service, giving them 24 hours to move their domain to another provider. 
 
 “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 GoDaddy spokesperson said in an emailed statement. 
 
 On Monday, Gab went offline. Visitors to the network were instead greeted with a short message, saying that Gab had been “no-platformed by App Stores, multiple hosting providers, and several payment processors,” and " smeared by the mainstream media." 
 
 “As we transition to a new hosting provider Gab will be inaccessible for a period of time. We are working around the clock to get Gab.com back online.” Meanwhile, Gab’s verified Twitter account continued to retweet supporters and argue with critics. 
 
 Gab, through Torba, has always pitched itself as an alternative to Silicon Valley social media sites, attracting a user base of people who believe companies such as Twitter and Facebook are deliberately censoring their views. In 2016, when Twitter strengthened its policy against “hateful conduct” and banned a number of far-right and white supremacist accounts, Torba said Gab gained 60,000 users in eight days. 
 
 The platform itself is a combination of many of the sites that Gab would like to replace. The site works like a hybrid of Reddit and Twitter, where users can post character-limited messages, and respond, comment and vote other users' posts up or down. Alex Jones, who has 55,000 followers on Gab, often promotes his live broadcasts there because he has been banned from YouTube and Twitter. 
 
 [‘They showed his photo, and my stomach just dropped’: Neighbors recall synagogue massacre suspect as a loner] 
 
 But Gab is more than a platform. It’s also positioned itself as a key figure in the right-wing response to online crackdowns of extremist views, and has benefited directly from the white supremacists who flocked to Gab on the promise that their views would not be censored, according to Joan Donovan, the media manipulation and platform accountability research lead at Data and Society, who has followed the site’s growth. 
 
 Torba has become a charismatic leader of the “alt-tech” movement which, among other things, dedicates itself to protecting and building tech to house “free speech” — including extremist ideologies that are increasingly unwelcome on mainstream sites. When James Damore was fired from Google in 2017 for writing a viral memo about women in tech, Torba capitalized on the case’s media attention to promote an “alt-tech revolution,” where conservative tech workers would rise up and topple Silicon Valley giants. Gab, of course, would be there to take their place. 
 
 Although the revolution did not come to pass as predicted, Torba managed to raise $80,000 for a crowdfunding campaign to support his website in the days after Damore’s story published, The Washington Post reported at the time. He also gained the currency of media attention, giving interviews to several mainstream outlets — including The Post — promoting his site as a mainstream technology alternative. 
 
 Donovan noted that Gab has used crackdowns such as the “hateful conduct” rule enforcement on Twitter to recruit for his own site. Gab “rode the wave of attention to white nationalists after Charlottesville to populate its social media platform,” Donovan said in an interview Sunday. In the wake of the deadly Charlottesville protests in 2017, major companies such as Apple, PayPal and Squarespace began removing white nationalists from their platforms, leaving them with fewer options for making money and hosting their views online. 
 
 Gab was there to pick up the slack. “Over the past year, Gab has been able to grow and add new features, premium features, streaming features,” Donovan said, “because of the fusion of the white supremacist need for platforms” and the website’s promise of a free-speech haven. 
 
 In the Pittsburgh attack’s aftermath, Christopher Cantwell — one of Gab’s most prominent anti-Semites who achieved notoriety during last year’s Charlottesville rally — began trafficking in Jewish slurs and conspiracy theories that the Florida pipe bomb suspect and Pittsburgh shooting was “beginning to feel like election interference from an intelligence agency." 
 
 Cantwell, known as the “Crying Nazi,” made a name for himself during the Charlottesville rally when he pepper-sprayed counterprotesters and was featured in a viral Vice documentary. On Gab, he frequently bashes Jews and African Americans and encourages followers to listen to his podcast, “Radical Agenda.” 
 
 He also attacks the news media, though he seems to have an affinity for Fox News. “The one good thing about this . . . shooting is that I know I’m not missing anything by turning off Fox News,” he wrote this weekend, using an offensive term for Jewish people. “This is all they’ll be talking about from now until election day.” 
 
 But he also let his followers know that he was worried Gab might be shutting down soon, and shared links where people could still follow and interact with him. “I know Gab is the only way some of you keep up with me, and it looks like that might be a problem,” he wrote. 
 
 Although Gab’s relationship to the white supremacists who congregate there can be contentious at times, Torba is extremely good at turning criticism of the platform — and the extreme views it houses — into calls to action and attention. Months ago, Torba started declining all mainstream media requests for interviews, a fact that Gab promotes on their social media accounts. In response to questions about Bowers’s account, The Post was sent a statement on Medium that said Gab had removed it and was cooperating with law enforcement. The site didn’t immediately respond to a request for an interview Sunday. 
 
 Meanwhile, Torba appears to be hoping for the ultimate attention intervention as Gab faces scrutiny. Torba posted a plea on Gab early Sunday for a word of support from the president: 
 
 "I don’t brag about this, but in 2016 across all of my accounts I had BILLIONS of impressions supporting and defending him and America. Can we get one tweet defending Gab.com, our work with law enforcement to bring a terrorist to justice, and our defense of free speech online for all people? 
 
 Is that too much to ask?” 
 
 This post, originally published on October 28, has been updated. Hamza Shaban contributed reporting. 

 Gab, Site Where Synagogue Shooting Suspect Posted, Is Suspended 
 
 Enlarge this image Towfiqu Photography/Getty Images Towfiqu Photography/Getty Images 
 
 Updated at 6:50 a.m. ET Monday 
 
 The alternative social media network that was reportedly used by the suspect in the deadly shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue is now down. 
 
 Gab.com is a social network that touts itself as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook to give conservatives a platform for free speech. But it also has been criticized for providing a platform for anti-Semitism and white nationalism. The site has come in for increased scrutiny since the shooting. 
 
 As of Monday, the site displayed a message saying it had 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 at Pittsburgh," it said. 
 
 The platform's future is newly in doubt because an account linked to Robert Bowers, the 46-year-old Pittsburgh resident charged in the shootings, wrote on Gab Saturday morning: "HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in." HIAS is a Jewish nonprofit that has the goal of helping immigrant refugees. 
 
 In an interview with NPR, Gab CEO and founder Andrew Torba defended his website and condemned the shooting in Pittsburgh. He said the site has a rule about removing direct threats, but he suggested that Bowers' post didn't sound like a concrete threat. 
 
 "I don't know. Do you see a direct threat in there? Because I don't. What would you expect us to do with a post like that? You want us to just censor anybody who says the phrase 'I'm going in'? Because that's just absurd," Torba said. "And here's the thing: The answer to bad speech, or hate speech, however you want to define that, is more speech. And it always will be." 
 
 PayPal confirmed to NPR that it had cut off the website from its payment system, and two Web-hosting sites also severed ties with Gab over the weekend. Torba told NPR he would work to keep the platform going. But hours later, Gab.com was down with a statement posted. 
 
 "As we transition to a new hosting provider Gab will be inaccessible for a period of time. We are working around the clock to get Gab.com back online," according to the statement on Gab's website. 
 
 The mechanics of what caused the website to be taken down were not clear early Monday, but websites depend on support from Web-hosting providers. It was also not clear how long the site would stay down. 
 
 A casual scroll through Gab's message boards while it was up over the weekend revealed plenty of anti-Semitism, racism, Nazism and sexism running through its messages, along with conspiracy theories. The site boasts plenty of standard social media fare as well, including messages about music, art and sports. 
 
 As NPR's Alina Selyukh reported last year, "many members of the far right and others who feel their views are stifled by mainstream sites like Twitter and Facebook" have gravitated toward Gab, with its promise of few restrictions on speech. 
 
 The site often responds to critics by pointing blame at Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites for the speech that can be found on those platforms. 
 
 Christopher Cantwell, a white nationalist who became known and was arrested after last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., has a page on Gab. 
 
 Gab said later on Saturday that its hosting provider Joyent pulled its service for the site effective Monday, meaning "Gab will likely be down for weeks because of this." 
 
 The site's community standards have loose restrictions without an explicit ban on hate speech. They do, however, ban users from "calling for the acts of violence against others" and "threatening language or behavior that clearly, directly and incontrovertibly infringes on the safety of another user or individual(s)." 
 
 Bowers used anti-Semitic slurs on Gab and called Jews an "infestation" and a "problem," according to the Anti-Defamation League. He also used the common white supremacist slogan "1488" in his profile, the group says, combining the classic white supremacist "14 words" with 88, which is code for "Heil Hitler." 
 
 Gab was headquartered in Philadelphia as of March and also listed an address in Clarks Summit, Pa., in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in September. It says it has two employees. 
 
 Gab launched in private beta in August 2016 before opening to the public in May 2017, according to a fundraising page for the site. Since then it has grown from 300,000 users in November of last year to about 800,000 today, the company says. 
 
 In a filing with the SEC in March, the site's operators said they expected to appeal to "over 50 million conservative, libertarian, nationalist, and populist internet users" who use sites such as Breitbart, DrudgeReport.com and InfoWars.com as people leave social networks that "censor conservative views." 

 UPDATE: The Gab social media service has also been dropped by its web host, Joyent, and by payment processor Stripe. They join PayPal in banning the service, allegedly because it hosted comments by Pittsburgh Tree of Life shooter Robert Bowers. 
 
 The social media site said it may be off-line for weeks as it seeks new providers. 
 
 “Breaking: @joyent, Gab’s new hosting provider, has just pulled our hosting service,” said a Gab tweet. “They have given us until 9am on Monday to find a solution. Gab will likely be down for weeks because of this. Working on solutions. We will never give up on defending free speech for all people.” The email from Joyent posted by Gab alleges “a breach of the Joyent Terms of Service. 
 
 “We will continue to fight for free expression and individual liberty online for all people. Big tech cannot stop us. The mainstream media can not stop us,” the social network continued. “The People will defend freedom against tyranny as they always have and always will.” 
 
 EARLIER: The PayPal payments platform has removed the account of Gab.ai from the service after it was revealed that Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter Robert Bowers was an active user of the conservative social media site. 
 
 PayPal did not provide an explanation to Gab for its decision. Bowers posted anti-Semitic and anti-Trump rhetoric on Gab, a Twitter-like service which is touted as “the home of free speech” and does little to limit conversations. 
 
 Bowers messages were sent on Gab shortly before he entered the Tree of Life Synagogue, including his ominous final one: “Screw your optics, I’m going in.” 
 
 Gab has removed Bowers’s account and information to the FBI and Dept. of Justice. Its owner, Andrew Torba, has issued a full statement on the matter. Bowers also had accounts on other social media, Torba said, but was not specific on which ones.
– The mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue has put the spotlight on Gab, a social media site that calls itself a haven for free speech, but has attracted numerous white supremacists and others driven from sites like Facebook and Twitter by crackdowns on hate speech. Shooting suspect Robert Bowers was a frequent Gab user, and had a profile that read "jews are the children of satan," the Washington Post reports. His anti-Semitic rants on the site continued until moments before the attack, when he wrote, "Screw your optics, I'm going in." Gab co-founder and CEO Andrew Torba, however, a conservative and a leader of the "alt-tech movement," says the site was designed to "step up and defend free speech" for all who joined and has denied that it seeks to attract far-right extremists. After Saturday's mass shooting, Gab posted a message saying it "unequivocally disavows and condemns all acts of terrorism and violence," NPR reports. Gab said it had deleted the Bowers account and was fully cooperating with law enforcement. The site was still dropped by web host Joyent and payment processors PayPal and Stripe, reports Deadline. "We have been smeared by the mainstream media for defending free expression and individual liberty for all people," the Gab homepage said. It said it would be inaccessible for a period of time, but "was working around the clock" to restore the site with a new host. (Saturday's attack is believed to be the deadliest ever on US Jews.)