Gab.com is fighting to stay online after shooting a synagogue in Pittsburgh

REUTERS: The website on which the alleged armed Pittsburgh synagogue published anti-Semitic articles said Sunday that he was working 24 hours a day to stay online after being interrupted by payment processors and forced to change d & # 39; host.

The 46-year-old suspect Robert Bowers was charged with killing 11 people on Saturday as part of the deadliest attack ever against the Jewish community in the United States. A few hours ago, he wrote on Gab.com, claiming that a non-profit organization helping Jewish refugees to resettle in the country was helping to kill "my people."

PayPal Holdings Inc. has banned the website from using its Saturday mailing services. Gab said Saturday it was warned that it would be blocked by another payment site, Stripe Inc., and had opted for a new web hosting service after Joyent Inc. announced its intention to cut the site.

Gab did not specify the identity of the new host.

"We are working 24 hours a day to ensure that Gab.com stays online," the company announced on Twitter on Sunday. "THE FREE WORD WILL ALWAYS WIN."

Founded in 2016 by curator Andrew Torba, Gab presents itself as an alternative "free expression" to Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. and has become a popular place to publish unwanted or banned content on other platforms.

Bowers, 46, joined the site in January.

Notable users include right-wing provocateurs Milo Yiannopoulos and Andrew Anglin, founder of the Daily Stormer neo-Nazi website, as well as media personalities Alex Jones and Carl Benjamin.

The free website charges for access to additional features and also raises funds on the StartEngine crowdfunding website.

Torba did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.

Utsav Sanduja, Gab's former director of operations, said the company and its mission would survive "guilt by association" and could more fundraise via cryptocurrencies to bypass technology companies.

"We created Gab in order to let off steam so we did not kill, it was not our intention," he said.

In previous statements, the website stated that it was cooperating with law enforcement authorities and described the actions taken by PayPal and others as acts of "direct collusion between the big giants of technology ". He also called on US President Donald Trump to act.

PayPal declined to comment Sunday beyond an earlier statement that the company takes immediate action when a "site allows the perpetuation of hatred, violence or discriminatory intolerance" .

Joyent could not be reached immediately and Stripe declined to comment on each user.

Sanduja said that there could be room for improvement for Gab.

"The mission should not change, but checks and balances must be put in place," he said.

Sanduja said he had left his role on the website in June after Gab users threatened death and threatened his wife, who works in a synagogue.

On Sunday, Gab's forum is illuminated with comments on the Pittsburgh attack. One user celebrated Gab's ban by PayPal, while another user responded: "You will be shot at your local synagogue". Another posted: "I was right, they screwed up the filming of the synagogue."

Last year, Gab raised US $ 1 million through crowdfunding, but recorded a loss of US $ 201,704, according to a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Microsoft Corp announced in an email that it had terminated Gab's accounts on its Azure cloud computing platform last month.

Alphabet Inc's mobile application stores for Google and Apple Inc. have previously blocked Gab, thus blocking a crucial source of access to new users.

The Facebook ad archives considered to be of a political nature show that Gab has only been showing one of these ads since the month of May. According to the records, he paid less than $ 100 for this ad and generated between 1,000 and 5,000 views last month.

According to the ad transparency database of these companies, the company had no active advertising campaign on Facebook or Twitter Inc. as of Saturday. Gab's account on Twitter warned users Saturday to expect that they will soon be banned from this site and from Facebook.

A spokeswoman for Facebook said the company was reviewing Gab's presence on his website. Twitter declined to comment.

(Report by Trevor Hunnicutt and Paresh Dave, edited by Daniel Wallis and Meredith Mazzilli)