Gab.com returned over the weekend after spending roughly a week offline. A visit to the site Monday revealed things were up and running normally under a new hosting provider, the Seattle-based Epik.com.
“Here is our press release the media. You failed,” the website announced triumphantly on Twitter. “We are back online. We grow stronger by the hour. Free speech lives at 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.”
https://twitter.com/getongab/status/1059267372639379456
Gab chief Andrew Torba did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap but did provide a “world exclusive” to InfoWars chief Alex Jones.
“We have the most traffic that we’ve ever seen in our existence and we are proud to be back online defending free speech and individual liberty,” he told Jones. “The media tries to smear us. They tried to smear myself and my business and our community of over 800,000 people from around the world.”
Gab, which bills itself as a free speech alternative to Twitter, is known for its extremely permissive rules on acceptable content, making it a favorite of white nationalists and other internet rogues banned from more mainstream social networks.
Gab went broadly unnoticed by most of the general public until a deadly shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue last month left 11 dead. Media reports later found that the suspected gunman, Robert Bowers, had been a regular Gab user where he routinely posted anti-semitic memes and content.
The site was abruptly dropped by its hosting provider GoDaddy last week after the domain host said Gab violated their terms of service. The decision came after an intense internet pressure campaign.
The decision by Epik.com to host the site led to an immediate reaction from many of the same activists Monday. The company did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap, but the website’s chief Rob Monster did speak to the Seattle Times, saying in brief remarks that he viewed his company as more of a utility and that he believed Torba and his team would be “vigilant” in policing content which violates their terms of service.