12/30/2023 0 Comments Conservative right wing gore websitesRay Vahey, CEO of BitChute, which features videos promoting far-right conspiracy theories including QAnon, says his service moved its domain to Epik from another provider late last year. “All of these groups have shown concentrated efforts to try to be better stewards of the community.” “I’ve never ever seen any of them get an abusive complaint that they didn’t take down instantaneously,” Davis says of services like Gab, which still hosts hateful comments today. Jones has previously promoted conspiracy theories including that Sandy Hook was a hoax, that Hillary Clinton runs an underground sex ring out of a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C., and that Bill Gates aims to wipe out minorities through eugenics. “As a result, the last two years has just been us deplatforming dozens of individuals, because we have no tolerance for hate.”Įpik says it keeps Infowars’ Jones as a customer because he’s a celebrity who is offering his opinions, even if they’re controversial. “It caused dozens of real racists to think they could come and find a home at Epik,” he says. Based on those episodes, many people now misconstrue the company as one that specifically caters to racists, terrorists, and hate speech, Davis says. Largely under the radar, Epik made headlines starting in 2018 when it agreed to register the domain of Gab and from its brief relationship with 8chan in 2019. He points to the fact that the company’s hosting and domain registrar services are used mostly by plumbers, doctors, and dentists. Monster never intended Epik, based in Sammamish, Wash., to be partisan, Davis says. Beyond selling domains, the company also offers web hosting services and site building tools. But Epik banned the site almost immediately after it registered.Įpik was founded in 2009 by Monster, who previously worked as a global product development manager for Pampers. The company also has denied services to the Daily Stormer, a message board known to host messages from neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and anti-Semites.įor a fleeting moment, Epik also did business with 8chan, a forum known for hosting extremist and violent content. Over the past several years, Epik has dropped more than 40 sites, including a faction of the Ku Klux Klan and another white supremacy group, Davis says. But they had to do a lot to fall from Epik’s good graces. In fact, Epik has cracked down on a small number of websites over the years. “Anything that causes people to target another individual to create hardship based on their skin color or who they are, we hate it. He adds that Epik tries to work with the sites, which are ultimately responsible for creating safe environments, to help them fix content problems and that “no one is beyond redemption.” However, Davis says that the company opposes violence, harassment, and racism. Hayden says that Monster provided “a lifeline to what was unquestionably one of the ugliest things the Internet has ever seen” and that he “offers services to the most disreputable horrific people on the Internet.” Michael Edison Hayden, senior investigative reporter for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, condemns Rob Monster, Epik’s CEO, for doing business with extremist sites. But Gab then reregistered its domain with Epik, and it remains a customer today. GoDaddy, Gab’s domain registrar at the time, quickly dumped it, as did Gab’s hosting service, temporarily taking Gab offline. The man behind the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018 that left 11 people dead, used Gab to post anti-Semitic images, conspiracy theories, and a final message that suggested he was planning a violent act. It gives extremists a megaphone to spread their hate and violence, they say. “Until these freedoms and voices have been taken away, most will not realize the extent of what could be lost.”īut critics worry that Epik provides refuge to services that are popular with extremists. “It is becoming increasingly easy to demonize anyone who has different beliefs,” Robert Davis, a spokesman for Epik, says in a statement. In addition to Parler, Epik’s web domain customers include Gab, a social network for conservatives and, in many cases, their violent threats Infowars, the home of far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and BitChute, a YouTube clone for the far right. Although the move didn’t stop the shuttering of Parler, it was another example of how Epik has, through its embrace of free speech, become the registrar of choice for a rogues’ gallery of websites. Under intense pressure, Parler switched the registration for its web domain-to a company known as the right wing’s best friend online: Epik. Outraged by the hate, vendors were pulling the plug on Parler’s tech infrastructure, eventually taking the service offline. Capitol riots last week, was in dire straits. Conservative social network Parler, home to countless posts threatening violence before the U.S.
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