8chan, website used by El Paso suspect to post manifesto back online after service interruption

[Eugene]

Last edited Mon Aug 5, 2019, 04:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: WAFB-TV

Website used by El Paso suspect to post manifesto back online after service interruption

By Mykal Vincent | August 5, 2019 at 6:35 AM CDT - Updated August 5 at 6:37 AM
(WAFB) - One of the darkest corners of the web went offline Monday after internet infrastructure company Cloudflare pulled support for the website used by the suspected gunman in El Paso to post a hate-filled manifesto.

“We just sent notice that we are terminating 8chan as a customer effective at midnight tonight Pacific Time. The rationale is simple: they have proven themselves to be lawless and that lawlessness has caused multiple tragic deaths. Even if 8chan may not have violated the letter of the law in refusing to moderate their hate-filled community, they have created an environment that revels in violating its spirit,” Matthew Prince, Cloudflare CEO wrote in a blog post.

-snip-

8chan is a forum created in 2013 by Fredrick Brennan as an alternative to 4chan, a message board popular with gamers. 8chan promised less moderation of controversial topics and images that were being removed from 4chan. As such, 8chan has become host to child pornography, extremist views and imagery, racism and hate under the banner of free speech.

-snip-

8chan was offline for around six hours worldwide before switching to BitMitigate, another security firm based in Washington. BitMitigate stepped in to get the Daily Stormer back online in 2017 when Cloudflare pulled its services from the neo-Nazi website. Today, the Daily Stormer is still available and “still disgusting,” Prince said.

BitMitigate’s website says it has a “proven commitment to liberty." 8chan’s site administrator tweeted a line from BitMitigate’s terms of services agreement that reads, “we leave law enforcement to the experts and will not stop service to any of our clients unless by final court order.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.wafb.com/2019/08/05/website-used-by-el-paso-suspect-post-manifesto-back-online-after-service-interruption/

UPDATE: BitMitigate's plug has been pulled.

8chan’s new internet host was kicked off its own host just hours later – TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/05/8chans-new-internet-host-was-kicked-off-its-own-host-just-hours-later/

[Fullduplexxx]

1. Well how can bitmit be driven to bancruptcy

[blogslut]

2. That service provider is owned by Epik

Epik is foul

[Celerity]

3. The Far Right Has Found a Web Host Savior

A web host called Epik has begun hosting the sites that other web hosts won't, which raises questions about how successful deplatforming hateful websites can actually be.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gy4yg9/the-far-right-has-found-a-web-host-savior

When Radio Wehrwolf, a popular podcast network among militant neo-Nazis, was shut down by its web host, the site was effectively homeless. But shortly after it disappeared in March, one of its podcast hosts suggested Radio Wehrwolf had found a web host bringing the site back online.

“On a little hiatus there with the website. We're gonna get that back up and running soon,” said the host on a meandering, two-hour-long YouTube clip, in which he complained about being taken offline by Bluehost, its former webhost.

Mere weeks later the podcast was back, and a simple WHOIS search reveals it’s registered by a little-known domain registrar called Epik. The connection between the neo-Nazi podcasters and the Seattle-based company isn’t surprising: The web hosting service has recently become the safehaven for the extreme right.

In January, the Southern Poverty Law Center published a report that explained that, though Epik seemed to start as a nondescript web host, it has recently updated its mission to be a “protector of free speech,” which has meant grabbing a long list of new far-right clients. The “free speech social network” Gab, YouTube-like video sharing site Bitchute, and Alex Jones’s InfoWars are all users of Epik.

“As a registrar, Epik plays an important role in the online infrastructure necessary to keep far right extremists online, including those that advocate violence,” Joshua Fisher-Birch, of the nonprofit Counter Extremism Project, told Motherboard in an email.

Fisher-Birch said he wasn’t surprised to learn Radio Wehrwolf turned to Epik or that the web registrar has ongoing connections to far-right content. And while mainstream web hosts or Silicon Valley giants like Facebook have taken well publicized actions against the far right, more obscure companies like Epik have filled the gaps for neo-Nazi sites to find a home online.

snip

[dalton99a]

4. Thanks to a "Bible-believing Christian" named Rob Monster

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rob-monster-epik-gab-neo-nazi_n_5c17bb29e4b05d7e5d846f72

The Bible-Thumping Tech CEO Who’s Proud Of Keeping Neo-Nazis Online
Rob Monster claims he helped resurrect Gab because of his commitment to free speech. He also has a lot to say about Jews.
By Jessica Schulberg

Most tech CEOs who provide safe spaces for neo-Nazis to organize, propagandize, and terrorize do so as quietly as possible. Pressed for an explanation, they’ll offer a few words on the importance of free speech and content neutrality. But Rob Monster, the founder and CEO of the domain registrar Epik, loves talking about how he helped Gab, a social media site popular among white supremacists, get back online after a crisis.

Monster registered Gab’s domain in November, after several internet service providers abandoned the platform in response to one of its users allegedly killing 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Since then, Monster, a Bible-quoting Christian, has defended Gab’s violent neo-Nazis, smeared critics who call for more regulation on the site, and made baseless claims that the racists on Gab are actually fake accounts created by liberals who want to make Gab look bad.

Monster, who is 51 and Dutch-American, was raised in Philadelphia, where he attended a Quaker school. After completing his MBA at Cornell, he got a job with Procter & Gamble that involved years-long stints in Germany and Japan. He went on to start his own market research company. Its board pushed him out in 2007.

That was the year that Monster found Jesus. “I came to the deeply-researched conclusion that the God of the Bible is in fact the Creator of the Universe, and that the decision to accept the free gift of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ is the path to eternal life,” he said in a 2016 interview. (Monster did not respond to a list of nearly two dozen questions from HuffPost, including a question about his 2007 departure from his company.)

Monster founded Epik in 2009 and described it as “the Swiss Bank of Domains,” a neutral company that would take money from anybody — even Nazis. He promised exceptional customer service, and often appeared on internet message boards to personally respond to users.

(His company Epik owns BitMitigate)

[IronLionZion]

5. Monster is a good name for him

[NewJeffCT]

6. Forgive my ignorance, but

what is the difference between 4chan and 8chan?