Gab, a social network favored by the alternative right that exploded in popularity after the US Capitol riots, was offline on Friday night, and her Twitter account was also deleted.
Twitter users I started to post that the site and its associated social media account crashed around 6:30 pm Eastern Time.
At least one Twitter user who claimed to be in Gab just before dark on Friday night, it was speculated that the site was hacked as part of a cryptocurrency scheme. The Post was unable to verify this theory.
The site was back up and running before midnight on Friday, along with a post from CEO Andrew Torba explaining that it had been taken down “as a precaution” after less than 20 accounts started “posting bitcoin wallet and content spam. related”.
“Due to our quick action, zero bitcoin was sent to any of the posted addresses and the affected accounts were protected,” said the statement.
A “security vulnerability” in the site’s code base has been fixed, the statement added.
Gab was taken down in 2018 by his host after the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre posted anti-Semitic speeches and conspiracy theories. Then it started accepting cryptocurrencies for payments to bypass tech companies.