Gab, a social network favored by the alt-right that exploded in popularity after the riots at the US Capitol, was offline Friday evening, and its Twitter account also went dark.
Twitter users first started posting that the website and its associated social media account went down at around 6:30 p.m. Eastern time.
At least one Twitter user who claimed to be on Gab just before it went dark Friday night speculated that the site was hacked as a part of a cryptocurrency scam. The Post could not verify that theory.
The site was back up before midnight Friday, along with a post from CEO Andrew Torba explaining that it had been taken down “out of an abundance of caution” after fewer than 20 accounts began “posting bitcoin wallet spam and related content.”
“Because of our quick action zero bitcoin was sent to any of the addresses posted and the affected accounts have been secured,” the statement said.
A “security vulnerability” in the site’s codebase has been patched, the statement added.
Gab was taken offline in 2018 by its host after the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre posted anti-Semitic rants and conspiracy theories. It then began accepting cryptocurrency for payments to bypass tech companies.
