Washington: The website where the suspected Pittsburgh synagogue gunman posted anti-Semitic views said on Sunday it was "working around the clock" to stay online after being cut off by payment processors and forced to switch web hosts.

The 46-year-old suspect Robert Bowers posted on Gab.com just hours before murdering 11 people on Saturday in the deadliest attack ever on the Jewish community in the United States, saying a non-profit that helps Jewish refugees relocate to the country was helping to kill "my people."

PayPal Holdings Inc banned the website from using its money-sending services on Saturday.

Gab said on Saturday it received notice it would be blocked by another payments website, Stripe Inc, and had switched to a new web-hosting service after Joyent Inc warned it would cut off the website.

Gab did not say who the new web host was. </s> (Reuters) - Alleged Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers used the web site Gab.com to express anti-Semitic views. Here is some information about the site, which said it suspended his account and contacted the authorities after the arrest.

** Gab launched in 2016 as a “free-speech” alternative to Twitter. Its founder, Andrew Torba, said existing sites like Twitter and Facebook have a left-leaning monopoly on social media. It allows users to read and write unfiltered messages of up to 300 characters, called “gabs”

** The home page describes the platform as “a social network that champions free speech, individual liberty and the free flow of information online. All are welcome.”

** Gab is a popular gathering place for alt-right activists and white nationalists whose views are unwelcome or banned on other social media platforms. Early members included the right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and Andrew Anglin, the founder of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website. Other well known users have included controversial media personalities Alex Jones and Carl Benjamin.

** PayPal advised Gab on Saturday that it was banned from using the company’s money sending services.

** Apple blocked the app from its App store in 2016, citing pornographic content, and later, hate speech. Google blocked the app from its Google Play store for hate speech, which brought a law suit from Gab that was eventually dropped.

** The company defended itself from criticism on Saturday, saying “We refuse to be defined by the media’s narratives about Gab and our community. Gab’s mission is very simple: to defend free expression and individual liberty online for all people. Social media often brings out the best and the worst of humanity.” </s> (Reuters) - Alleged Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers used the web site Gab.com to express anti-Semitic views. Here is some information about the site, which said it suspended his account and contacted the authorities after the arrest.

** Gab launched in 2016 as a "free-speech" alternative to Twitter. Its founder, Andrew Torba, said existing sites like Twitter and Facebook have a left-leaning monopoly on social media. It allows users to read and write unfiltered messages of up to 300 characters, called "gabs"

** The home page describes the platform as "a social network that champions free speech, individual liberty and the free flow of information online. All are welcome."

** Gab is a popular gathering place for alt-right activists and white nationalists whose views are unwelcome or banned on other social media platforms. Early members included the right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and Andrew Anglin, the founder of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website. Other well known users have included controversial media personalities Alex Jones and Carl Benjamin.

** PayPal advised Gab on Saturday that it was banned from using the company's money sending services.

** Apple blocked the app from its App store in 2016, citing pornographic content, and later, hate speech. Google blocked the app from its Google Play store for hate speech, which brought a law suit from Gab that was eventually dropped.

** The company defended itself from criticism on Saturday, saying "We refuse to be defined by the media’s narratives about Gab and our community. Gab’s mission is very simple: to defend free expression and individual liberty online for all people. Social media often brings out the best and the worst of humanity." </s> • What we know about Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victims
• Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect: Everything we know about Robert Bowers
• How to help Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victims
• 'It's a terrible thing': Pres. Trump, others respond to Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
• PHOTOS: Pittsburgh comes together after synagogue shooting
• What is Gab, the social network used by Pittsburgh shooting suspect?

The man arrested in the mass shooting Saturday at a Pennsylvania synagogue appears to have made virulently anti-Semitic posts on a social media platform popular with far-right figures who feel their views aren't welcome on other social media services. Police have identified the suspect as Robert Bowers, 46, of Pittsburgh . A deactivated account on the website Gab appears to have been associated with Bowers. It included postings that are anti-Semitic and anti-refugee in nature and that are also critical of President Trump.Much like Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks, Gab allows users to share short multimedia messages known as "gabs."Gab, though, has become an alternative to Twitter for users whose racist and harassing online behavior got them banned from the mainstream platform, according to the Associated Press. The company said it disavows acts of terrorism and violence but sees its mission as defending "free expression and individual liberty online for all people."In a Setepmber profile, Breitbart characterized Gab as "an infrastructure for tech developers that wish to grow their own platforms and products without being forced to go through leftist companies based in Silicon Valley."CEO Andrew Torba told Breitbart that the website was popular with users in Brazil, Sweden and India "after a recent wave of censorship aimed at major influencers on the right."In a statement, Gab.com said it suspended the account apparently associated with Bowers Saturday morning shortly after his name was mentioned on police radio chatter. The company said it backed up the content of the account and has been in contact with the FBI about the contents of the account.Law enforcement officials confirmed to ABC News that they are looking into statements apparently made to and by Bowers on Gab and other social networks.Amid increased scrutiny after the shooting, Gab said on Twitter it had been dropped by its web hosting company and banned by Paypal and financial services company Stripe."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 later wrote on Gab, adding that the site's users should "pray for the victims and their families." </s> On Saturday, a Pennsylvania man was accused of shooting 11 people to death at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in what is being considered the worst attack on Jews at worship in American history.

Before the attack, the suspected gunman posted a message on Gab, a fringe social media network launched in 2016. His use of Gab has thrust the service into the spotlight.

Here's what you need to know about Gab:

How did it start?

Gab was launched in 2016 as an alternative to traditional platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. During that time, Twitter had suspended several accounts associated with the "alt-right" movement on the same day it vowed a crackdown on hate speech.

The suspensions pushed many people to Gab, which has fewer restrictions on what content users can post compared with Twitter and other social media.

"Gab’s mission is to put people and free speech first," the service's guidelines say. "We believe that the only valid form of censorship is an individual’s own choice to opt-out."

The relaxed rules opened the door for content such as anti-Semitic posts and conspiracy theories. In August, according to The Verge, Microsoft threatened to stop hosting the social network over a pair of anti-Semitic posts, which eventually were removed.

Gab's rules say it prohibits activities such as posting illegal pornography, engaging in any illegal activity using Gab, or "calling for the acts of violence against others, promoting or engaging in self-harm, and/or acts of cruelty, threatening language or behavior that clearly, directly and incontrovertibly infringes on the safety of another user or individual(s)."

How is the suspect in Pittsburgh connected?

Before entering the synagogue, an account appearing to belong to suspect Robert Bowers, 46, posted a message on Gab: "I can't sit by an watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics. I'm going in."

His profile also featured multiple anti-Semitic comments and conspiracy theories, including one referenced in his last post claiming the organization HIAS, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, was bringing "invaders in to kill our people."

More: Who is Robert Bowers? Accused Pittsburgh synagogue shooter left anti-semitic trail

In a statement, Gab said it was "saddened and disgusted" by the Pittsburgh attack. "Gab took swift and proactive action to contact law enforcement immediately," the service said in a statement. "We first backed up all user data from the account and then proceeded to suspend the account."

PayPal spokesman Justin Higgs said the payments service canceled Gab's account and had been in the process of ending its account before the shooting. "The company is diligent in performing reviews and taking account actions," Higgs said. "When a site is allowing the perpetuation of hate, violence or discriminatory intolerance, we take immediate and decisive action."

On Twitter, Gab said payment processing service Stripe and hosting provider Joyent were going to ban the service. Representatives from Joyent could not be immediately reached for comment. In a statement, Stripe said the company can’t comment on individual users for privacy reasons.

In a statement, Gab said the behavior from Bowers and other users isn't unique to its service. "Criminals and criminal behavior exist on every social media platform." </s> On Saturday, a Pennsylvania man was accused of killing 11 people during a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, in what is being considered the worst attack on worshipping Jewish people in American history.

Prior to the attack, the alleged gunman posted a message on Gab, a fringe social media network launched in 2016. His use of Gab has thrust the service into the spotlight.

Here's what you need to know about Gab:

How did it start?

Gab launched in 2016 as an alternative to traditional platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. During that time, Twitter had suspended several accounts associated with the "alt-right" movement on the same day it vowed a crackdown on hate speech.

The suspensions pushed many people to Gab, which has fewer restrictions on what content users can post compared to Twitter and other social media.

"Gab’s mission is to put people and free speech first," reads an excerpt from the service's guidelines. "We believe that the only valid form of censorship is an individual’s own choice to opt-out."

The relaxed rules opened the door for content such as anti-Semitic posts and conspiracy theories. In August, according to The Verge, Microsoft threatened to stop hosting the social network over a pair of anti-Semitic posts, which were eventually removed.

However, Gab's rules say it prohibits activities such as posting illegal pornography, engaging in any illegal activity using Gab, or "calling for the acts of violence against others, promoting or engaging in self-harm, and/or acts of cruelty, threatening language or behavior that clearly, directly and incontrovertibly infringes on the safety of another user or individual(s)."

How is the shooter in Pittsburgh connected?

Prior to entering the synagogue, an account appearing to belong to accused gunman Robert Bowers, 46, posted a message on Gab: "I can't sit by an watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics. I'm going in."

His profile also featured multiple anti-Semitic comments and conspiracy theories, including one referenced in his last post claiming the organization HIAS, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, was bringing "invaders in to kill our people."

More: Who is Robert Bowers? Accused Pittsburgh synagogue shooter left anti-semitic trail

In a statement, Gab said it was "saddened and disgusted" by the Pittsburgh attack. "Gab took swift and proactive action to contact law enforcement immediately," said the service in a statement. "We first backed up all user data from the account and then proceeded to suspend the account."

PayPal spokesman Justin Higgs said the payments service canceled Gab's account, and had been in the process of ending its account before the shooting in Pittsburgh. "The company is diligent in performing reviews and taking account actions," said Higgs. "When a site is allowing the perpetuation of hate, violence or discriminatory intolerance, we take immediate and decisive action."

On Twitter, Gab said payment processing service Stripe and hosting provider Joyent were going to ban the service. Representatives from Joyent could not be immediately reached for comment. In a statement, Stripe said the company can’t comment on individual users for privacy reasons.

In a statement, Gab said the behavior from Bowers and other user isn't unique to its service. "Criminals and criminal behavior exist on every social media platform." </s> PHOENIX — GoDaddy, which is the largest Internet domain-name seller in the world, announced Sunday evening it will no longer provide service to the neo-Nazi website, The Daily Stormer.

The company (GDDY), which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz., has drawn criticism for months for its willingness to provide a domain name for a website "dedicated to spreading anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism, and white nationalism," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Sunday: Vigil for Charlottesville victim canceled, but mourners meet at crash site

Friday: Federal judge allows 'alt-right' rally to go ahead as planned

The move comes after The Daily Stormer published an article Sunday using sexist and obscene language to demean Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman who was killed when a car driven by an alleged white supremacist mowed down a crowd of people after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

After someone tweeted a reference to the article asking GoDaddy to remove it and ban the site, GoDaddy replied, "We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service."

GoDaddy corporate spokesman Dan Race confirmed the action in an email to The Arizona Republic, which like USA TODAY is a part of the USA TODAY Network.

Previously, the company served "as the domain name registrar for The Daily Stormer, through its subsidiary Domains by Proxy, as it has throughout the site’s four-year history," according to the investigative news website, Reveal.

March 2017: Racist 'assassin' indicted as terrorist in NYC murder of black man </s> Domain hosting company GoDaddy said Monday that neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer has 24 hours to find a new provider before its service is canceled following the publication of a disparaging article about the woman killed in the Charlottesville protests.

Shortly after the announcement, the Daily Stormer — the top hate site in America, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center — moved its domain to Google.

But in a matter of hours, Google announced it, too, would not be hosting the website.

On Sunday, the Daily Stormer published an article about Heather Heyer, who died after a vehicle plowed into a group of counter-protesters demonstrating against white supremacists.

A Twitter user flagged the offensive content by taking a screengrab of the article, and tweeting it at GoDaddy.

The article, which had the byline of the Daily Stormer's founder Andrew Anglin, mocked Heyer’s looks and degraded her for not being a mother.

It also elevated the suspected driver, James Alex Fields, Jr., saying, “despite the cool demeanor he shows in his social media profile pictures, it appears that road rage got the best of him.”

“We have informed the Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service. If no action is taken after 24 hours, we will cancel the service,” GoDaddy spokesman Dan Race wrote in an email to NBC News.

Race also noted that GoDaddy does not host the Daily Stormer on its servers — it only hosts the domain.

The Daily Stormer, which takes its name from the gutter Nazi propaganda sheet known as “Der Stürmer,” promotes anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism, and white nationalism, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In the past, GoDaddy said it could not disable the Daily Stormer’s domain or that of other neo-Nazi website, because of Anglin and others’ First Amendment right and freedom of speech.

“Given their latest article comes on the immediate heels of a violent act, we believe this type of article could incite additional violence, which violates our terms of service,” Race said.

By Monday afternoon, Google had decided to drop the Daily Stormer's domain registration, too.

“We are cancelling Daily Stormer’s registration with Google Domains for violating our terms of service,” a Google spokesperson wrote in an email to NBC News.

A search for the domain showed Google was still hosting Daily Stormer as of 3 p.m. Monday. It was not immediately clear when Google would drop the site.

Following the article about Heyer and the announcement that GoDaddy would be ending the Daily Stormer’s service, the site appeared to have been hacked by internet activist group Anonymous.

Related: Sessions Says Dept. of Justice Will Defend Protesters Against ‘Racism and Bigotry’

An article with Anonymous’ signature Guy Fawkes mask appeared at the top of the page on Monday morning with a headline reading, “END OF HATE: ANONYMOUS NOW IN CONTROL OF DAILY STORMER.”

However, an Anonymous Twitter account noted that it could not verify the authenticity of the hack and warned its followers to “remain cautious.”

Later on Monday, a story on the Daily Stormer with Anglin's byline on it said the site was back in the hands of its founder. </s> SAN FRANCISCO — Neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer attempted to switch its domain registration to Google after GoDaddy booted the site over an article on deadly protests at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

The switch, first reported by Reuters, was visible via a public records search on Whois, which displays domain registration information. But hours later, Google's press office said in a statement to USA TODAY that the website violates its terms of service and has since been removed.

Yet The Daily Stormer remained online Monday despite the controversy. GoDaddy, which is the largest Internet domain-name seller in the world, announced Sunday evening it will no longer provide service to The Daily Stormer.

The company (GDDY), which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz., has drawn criticism for months for its willingness to provide a domain name for a website "dedicated to spreading anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism, and white nationalism," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

► Sunday: Vigil for Charlottesville victim canceled, but mourners meet at crash site

► Friday: Federal judge allows 'alt-right' rally to go ahead as planned

The move comes after The Daily Stormer published an article Sunday using sexist and obscene language to demean Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman who was killed when a car driven by an alleged white supremacist drove into a crowd of counter-protesters after the Charlottesville, Va., rally.

After someone tweeted a reference to the article asking GoDaddy to remove it and ban the site, GoDaddy replied, "We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service."

GoDaddy corporate spokesman Dan Race confirmed the action in an email to The Arizona Republic, which like USA TODAY is a part of the USA TODAY Network.

The site was formed in 2013 and contains a variety of content under headlines such as "Race War" and "Jewish Problem." The homepage depicts a white video game character punching a black character.

"GoDaddy does not condone content that advocates expressions of hate, racism, bigotry," said Ben Butler, director of GoDaddy's digital crimes unit. "However, we generally do not take action on complaints that would constitute censorship of content and that represents the exercise of freedom of speech and expression on the Internet.

► April: Lawsuit targets neo-Nazi 'troll storm' against Jewish family

► March: Racist 'assassin' indicted as terrorist in NYC murder of black man

"While we detest the sentiment of such sites, we support a free and open Internet and, similar to the principles of free speech, that sometimes means allowing such tasteless, ignorant content," he said.

He said the recent content on The Daily Stormer crossed the line by encouraging violence.

Domain-name registry services allow people to access the site's content by linking the www.dailystormer.com address to the actual computer hosting the content. GoDaddy did not host the company's information on its services.

► November: Twitter accused of political bias in right-wing crackdown

► November: White supremacists urge trolling Clinton supporters to suicide

A domain-registry search tool on Monday showed the services were transferred to Google, which also said the site violated its terms of service and removed it. It was not clear Monday afternoon what company was hosting the site.

Previously, the company served "as the domain name registrar for The Daily Stormer, through its subsidiary Domains by Proxy, as it has throughout the site’s four-year history," according to the investigative news website, Reveal.

Daily Stormer's producer Andrew Anglin posted a message Monday that ignored the rebuke from GoDaddy and instead blamed a brief disruption on the site as the work of the international computer-hacking group Anonymous.

Anonymous, which has no formal leadership structure but does have Twitter accounts associated with it, tweeted Monday that it was unaware of any of its followers hacking the site. The tweet suggested Anglin was faking the hack of his site.

"This is likely to be the derps from dailystormer engaging in a silly troll to woo their clueless base," the Anonymous tweet said. "If we're proven wrong, so be it."

Contributing: Ryan Randazzo, The Arizona Republic. Follow Kaila White and Rachel Sandler on Twitter: @kailawhite and @rachsandl </s> In the wake of the terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand last month, Australia is putting major pressure on Big Tech to prevent the spread of hateful and violent content on their platforms, with a new law that threatens major fines and imprisonment.

The law positions Australia at the extreme end of a growing push to police the digital gatekeepers.

On Thursday, Australia’s parliament passed legislation that carries penalties of up to 10 percent of annual global net sales over the 12 months preceding an offense for the companies, and imprisonment of up to three years for company executives. It is unclear from the legislation which executives would be subjected to the law.

The new Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material bill requires hosting services and content service providers to notify law enforcement and “expeditiously” remove content that depicts “abhorrent violent conduct,” which the bill defines as terrorist acts, murder, attempted murder, torture, rape, and kidnapping.

The law does not limit its scope to the executives of major corporations like Google or Facebook. Instead, those who run any site or service that fails to remove “abhorrent violent material” from their servers are also subject to potential fines or imprisonment under the law.

The bill was drafted in response to the horrific shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, during which the shooter livestreamed his attack and white supremacist messages on Facebook. After the original livestream was removed, the video rapidly proliferated across the platform as Facebook moderators scrambled to remove hundreds of thousands of re-uploads. The company says it automatically blocked 1.2 million versions while another 300,000 made it past their filters. Videos were also shared on Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube, all of which likewise struggled to contain it.

Australia’s attorney general, Christian Porter, told reporters on Thursday that Twitter and Facebook “should not be playing footage of murder,” according to The Guardian. “There are platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook who do not seem to take their responsibility to not show the most abhorrently violent material seriously,” Porter told reporters.

The Guardian reports that Porter explained a jury would have to decide what constitutes an “expeditious” timeframe for removal of offending content, meaning it is not specifically defined by the law. Porter added, “every Australian would agree it was totally unreasonable that it [the Christchurch video] should exist on their [Facebook’s] site for well over an hour without them taking any action whatsoever.”

Digital Industry Group Inc (DIGI), an Australian group that represents Twitter, Google, Facebook, and Amazon, among other tech companies, denounced the new law.

“This law, which was conceived and passed in five days without any meaningful consultation, does nothing to address hate speech, which was the fundamental motivation for the tragic Christchurch terrorist attacks,” DIGI managing director Sunita Bose said, in a statement.

Bose said that DIGI members try to remove abhorrent content as fast as possible. “But with the vast volumes of content uploaded to the internet every second, this is a highly complex problem that requires discussion with the technology industry, legal experts, the media and civil society to get the solution right,” Bose said.

“We have zero tolerance for terrorist content on our platforms,” a Google spokesperson told Gizmodo. “We are committed to leading the way in developing new technologies and standards for identifying and removing terrorist content.”

Facebook and Twitter directed Gizmodo to the statement from DIGI.

In an interview on Good Morning America that aired shortly after the bill was passed, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rejected calls made after the Christchurch attack to add a delay to livestreams, because it would “fundamentally break what livestreaming is for people.”
American online payments system company PayPal bans American social media site Gab, known for its association with the alt-right movement, while Joyent, Gab's American hosting provider, states that they will terminate their service tomorrow. The move comes after it was revealed that the suspect in yesterday's 11 deaths, Robert Bowers, was an active member on the social network.