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Social Media and the Pittsburgh Shooter: Gab.com Going Down

posted by martyb on Monday October 29 2018, @08:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the social-commentary-on-social-media dept.

bradley13 writes:

The social network gab.com is apparently going down on Monday, October 29th at 09:00 ET. Their ISP has terminated their services, ostensibly because Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh mass shooting suspect, had made offensive posts on Gab.

To get this out of the way: I have mixed feelings about Gab, more specifically, about the founders. However, the idea that some social network somewhere should refuse to censor anything that is not outright illegal? This is good. Social media has become the modern "market square", and free speech should be guaranteed, even if the platforms are technically private.

If you want free speech, you apparently don't want to be in the U.S.

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  • (Score: 2) by shortscreen on Monday October 29 2018, @09:22AM (12 children)

    by shortscreen (2252) on Monday October 29 2018, @09:22AM (#754983) Journal

    This is ridiculous.

    Who is Gab's ISP? so I can add them to my shit list...

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by bradley13 on Monday October 29 2018, @09:41AM (9 children)

    by bradley13 (3053) on Monday October 29 2018, @09:41AM (#754987) Homepage Journal

    Joylent, based in California. It seems stupid for Gab to use a US-based provider, much less one in California.

    --
    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 29 2018, @10:33AM (6 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 29 2018, @10:33AM (#755001) Journal

      In Gab's defense, they're Americans. Not only are they Americans, but they are American's whose voices are on the list to be silenced. Gab exists because the media has attempted to silence them, but they are still Americans. They naively believed that if they could escape the corporate bullshit censorship at Facefook and Twitstorm, they would be alright.

      We can probably presume that they'll take this lesson to heart, and find a host in Russia or someplace outside the US. Chances are slim they'll find a host in the US after this. Unless, or course, they just fold. They wouldn't be the first to fold and be forgotten.

      But, as pointed out earlier in this discussion, the individuals will go underground. I2P, TOR, and any other darkweb places they can think of. And, some will join ranks with Stormfront, where their views are welcome. Where is Stormfront hosted? I've never even looked to see . . .

      $ whois stormfront.net
            Domain Name: STORMFRONT.NET
            Registry Domain ID: 697397_DOMAIN_NET-VRSN
            Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.uniregistrar.com
            Registrar URL: http://www.uniregistrar.com [uniregistrar.com]
            Updated Date: 2018-07-22T00:57:10Z
            Creation Date: 1997-07-14T04:00:00Z
            Registry Expiry Date: 2019-07-13T04:00:00Z
            Registrar: Uniregistrar Corp
            Registrar IANA ID: 1659
            Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@uniregistry.com
            Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.3457698347
            Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited [icann.org]
            Name Server: NS1.UNIREGISTRY-DNS.COM
            Name Server: NS1.UNIREGISTRY-DNS.NET
            Name Server: NS2.UNIREGISTRY-DNS.COM
            Name Server: NS2.UNIREGISTRY-DNS.NET
            DNSSEC: unsigned

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @10:42AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @10:42AM (#755010)

        They wouldn't be the first to fold and be forgotten.

        Boo-bloody-hoo 🎻🎶

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @10:47AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @10:47AM (#755017)

        Correction: They are not Americans. Some of them may be physical residents, but they are no Americans.

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 29 2018, @10:52AM

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 29 2018, @10:52AM (#755022) Journal

          citation needed

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @01:48PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @01:48PM (#755079)

          No True Scotsman [yourlogicalfallacyis.com]
          Honestly, I rarely see it stated so plainly; usually when people display their inability to think they're at least not quite as obvious about it.

          • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @07:25PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @07:25PM (#755289)

            git trulled biatch

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by J053 on Monday October 29 2018, @08:36PM

        by J053 (3532) <{dakine} {at} {shangri-la.cx}> on Monday October 29 2018, @08:36PM (#755339) Homepage

        $ dig stormfront.net

        ; > DiG 9.9.4-RedHat-9.9.4-61.el7 > stormfront.net
        ;; global options: +cmd
        ;; Got answer:
        ;; ->>HEADER ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 13, ADDITIONAL: 27

        ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
        ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
        ;; QUESTION SECTION:
        ;stormfront.net. IN A

        ;; ANSWER SECTION:
        stormfront.net. 299 IN A 198.72.116.209

        % whois 198.72.116.209
        [Querying whois.arin.net]
        [whois.arin.net]

        # # ARIN WHOIS data and services are subject to the Terms of Use
        # available at: " rel="url2html-7213">https://www.arin.net/whois_tou.html
        #
        # If you see inaccuracies in the results, please report at
        # " rel="url2html-7213">https://www.arin.net/resources/whois_reporting/index.html
        #
        # Copyright 1997-2018, American Registry for Internet Numbers, Ltd.
        #



        # start

        NetRange: 198.72.116.192 - 198.72.116.223
        CIDR: 198.72.116.192/27
        NetName: IWEB-NE-T118-01SH
        NetHandle: NET-198-72-116-192-1
        Parent: IWEB-BLK-09 (NET-198-72-96-0-1)
        NetType: Reassigned
        OriginAS: AS32613
        Customer: iWeb Dedicated NE (C03216883)
        RegDate: 2012-11-27
        Updated: 2012-11-27
        Ref: " rel="url2html-7213">https://rdap.arin.net/registry/ip/198.72.116.192


        CustName: iWeb Dedicated NE
        Address: 7207 boulevard Newman
        City: LaSalle
        StateProv: QC
        PostalCode: H8N 2K3
        Country: CA
        RegDate: 2012-11-27
        Updated: 2012-11-27
        Ref: " rel="url2html-7213">https://rdap.arin.net/registry/entity/C03216883

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @10:45AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @10:45AM (#755012)

      It seems stupid for Gab to use a US-based provider, much less one in California.

      Ja! Wenn sie nur einen in Österreich oder Bayern finden könnten! Sieg Heil, bradley13!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @09:30PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @09:30PM (#755360)

      Also please note that Joylent is owned by Samsung.

      So the US taxpayers pay for a military that protects South Korea, where Samsung is, so that Samsung's subsidiary can turn around and attack the freedom of speech of Americans. How very nice of them.

  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by jmorris on Monday October 29 2018, @08:02PM

    by jmorris (4844) on Monday October 29 2018, @08:02PM (#755316)

    Add Microsoft's Azure to the list, they booted them earlier. They were at least White[1] about it, giving two weeks notice so Gab could move without downtime. The really damnable thing here is this Korean owned (supposedly Samsung is at the top of the who owns who tree for Joylent, always hard to really know who owns who though, who can actually exert control, etc.) took Gab on a few months ago knowing full well they were controversial and then, citing no specific TOS violation, banned them on a Saturday effective at 9am Monday. That was a trap Torba walked into.

    [1] Yes I know Microsoft is now essentially an Indian IT company, that is the joke.

  • (Score: 2) by jasassin on Monday October 29 2018, @11:08PM

    by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Monday October 29 2018, @11:08PM (#755410) Homepage Journal

    This is ridiculous.
            104.20.85.251
    Who is Gab's ISP? so I can add them to my shit list...

    According to a ping gab.com the IP address is 104.20.85.251

    According to http://whois.domaintools.com/104.20.85.251 [domaintools.com] it is hosted on cloudflare.

    --
    jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A