Gab, the controversial social network used by the man accused of killing 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue, is back online after its original Web hosting provider cut ties with the company.

Gab, which has been criticized for welcoming users with far-right political leanings who were banned from other social networks, was dropped by GoDaddy two days after the shooting, when it was revealed suspect Robert Bowers used the service to post anti-Semitic messages.

That changed on last Saturday when domain service Epik welcomed Gab. Epik’s founder, Rob Monster, said he believed the site was a victim of “digital censorship.”

“Although I did not take the decision lightly to accept this domain registration, I look forward to partnering with a young, and once brash, CEO who is courageously doing something that looks useful.” Monster wrote in an essay published to his company’s website. “While there are consequences to actions, there is also the proverbial risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. My hope, for all of our sakes, is that Gab.com treads wisely, using its liberty for the betterment of most, and the enlightenment of all.”

Godaddy was hardly the only company to cut ties with Gab. Payment processors Stripe and PayPal and cloud hosting company Joyent also suspended the network. Apple and Google had already prevented Gab from distributing its app in their app stores. Microsoft had threatened to stop hosting Gab’s website over anti-Semitic posts this summer.

Critics argue the site, which unlike Facebook or Twitter does not use advertisements to make money, is a haven for racists. Gab insists that’s a mischaracterization.

“We have nothing but love for all people and freedom. We have consistently disavowed all violence. Free speech is crucial for the prevention of violence. If people can not express themselves through words, they will do so through violence.” Gab wrote in a now-deleted Medium post after the shooting.

The company, however, did not mince words in social media posts published after its return.

Here is our press release to the media:

You failed. We are back online. We grow stronger by the hour. Free speech lives at https://t.co/J3Rfto6fi3. This is only the beginning. May God have mercy on you for what you people have done this past week. Peace, love, and prayers.

— Gab.com(@getongab) November 5, 2018

Gab says it is politically neutral and committed to free speech, even if its recent statements put it squarely at odds with members of the press, whose own freedoms share space in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Gab has raised more than $1 million in funding; it ramped up fundraising efforts after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. in 2017.

Gab’s users include many figures of the so-called alt-right, such as Milo Yiannopolous, the former Breitbart writer who was banned from Twitter in 2016 for inciting harassment, and Andrew Anglin, founder of neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, which was effectively shut down last year when web companies suspended its domain registration.

匹茨堡枪击案中被控杀害了11个人的嫌疑人使用的社交平台Gab因为备受争议被原网络主机供应商中断了合作，被迫下线的网站现已重新上线。

Gab一直以来都因为欢迎政治立场极端右倾的用户而饱受诟病，这些用户早已被其他社交网络抛弃。网站在匹茨堡枪击案发生两天后被域名服务供应商GoDaddy抛弃，因为媒体爆出嫌疑人罗伯特·鲍尔斯曾使用Gab发表反犹言论。

上周六，域名服务商Epik接纳了Gab。Epik的创始人罗伯·曼斯特称他认为Gab不过是“数字审查”的受害者。

“虽然做出接受Gab进行域名注册的决定并不容易，我很期待能和这个曾经有点莽撞的年轻CEO合作，因为他有勇气去做有用的事。”曼斯特在公司网站上发表的一篇文章中写道。“尽管有些行为造成了一些不好后果，但也有个成语叫因噎废食。我希望，为了所有人的利益，Gab.com能在经营中慎思明辨，用自由的环境改善大多数人的生活，让所有人都能有所启发感悟。”

Godaddy并非唯一一家和Gab断绝合作关系的公司。支付服务公司Stripe和PayPal、云服务供应商Joyent也停止向Gab提供服务。苹果和谷歌在此之前就已经将Gab从应用商店中下架。今年夏天，微软曾因Gab上有人发表反犹言论，警告Gab将停止其网络托管服务。

批评者认为，Gab不像Facebook或推特，不用做广告赚钱，简直是种族主义者的避风港。Gab坚称这是曲解。

“对于全人类和自由的爱是我们所拥有的一切。我们一直说，暴力与我们无关。言论自由对于预防暴力至关重要。如果人们可以通过语言自由表达，他们就不会再用暴力进行发泄。”这是Gab在枪击案发生后在Medium上发表的内容，现在已被删除。

然而，公司回归后在社交媒体中上发表的言论仍然毫不拐弯抹角。

我们对媒体发布的新闻稿如下：

你们输了。我们重新上线了。我们更强大了。https://t.co/J3Rfto6fi3上言论自由永存。这只是开始。希望上帝能宽恕你们过去一周中所做的一切。为和平和爱祈祷。

— Gab.com(@getongab) 2018年11月5日

Gab说他们政治中立，追求言论自由，虽然Gab最近的声明和一些媒体产生了直接冲突，而新闻报道的自由也是宪法第一修正案的组成内容。Gab已经筹集了超过100万美元资金，2017年维吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔白人至上主义者集会上出现死亡事件后，Gab加大了筹资力度。

Gab的用户包括许多所谓的另类右翼，例如米洛·伊安诺波利斯和安德鲁·安格林，前者曾是右翼新闻网站布赖特巴特（Breitbart）的作者，2016年因煽动人们骚扰被禁用推特，后者是新纳粹网站The Daily Stormer的创始人，该网站因为去年各家网络公司中止其域名注册服务实际上已处于关闭状态。（财富中文网）

译者：Agatha