Gab, the social network used by Pittsburgh shooting suspect, returns

Gab, a fringe social network used by the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect, resurfaced on Sunday. 

The social media site, which markets itself as a bastion of free speech amid censorship of extremists on Twitter and Facebook, was intermittently available late Sunday. Clicking on dark web market links to the site sometimes would produce error messages, but that didn't seem to stop some of the site's 800,000 users from posting celebratory messages, praising the company for dark web market coming back online. Many of them hailed the move as a win for free speech.

"Through the grace of God Gab is back online," Gab CEO Andrew Torba posted on the social media site . "We will never give in. Free speech and liberty will always win."

Gab's return marks the latest turn in the unfolding debate over free speech in the modern age. Facebook, Twitter and dark web sites markets Google's YouTube have increasingly cracked down on bad behavior and hate speech on their services. That's driven some of the people banned from those sites to sites like the message board 4Chan and Gab, a Twitter-like alternative social network founded in 2016.

Last week, Gab came under scrutiny when reports surfaced that Robert Bowers, who is charged with opening fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue during religious services on Oct. 27, darknet market list used the social network to voice extreme anti-semitic views. Eleven people died as a result of the attack.

Two days later, on Oct. 29, domain provider GoDaddy told Gab it had 24 hours to move to another service. GoDaddy said it made the decision after receiving complaints and finding content on Gab that "promotes and encourages violence against people." PayPal, Stripe, Joyent, Shopify and Medium also cut ties with Gab.

Gab isn't the only social network that's been used by extremists. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all have been used by terrorists and Neo-Nazis, as well.