8chan dumped by service known for hosting racist sites
Epik, the domain registrar and hosting provider that frequently steps in to help deplatformed far-right hate sites get back online, has drawn the line at 8chan.
The domain name company’s controversial CEO, Rob Monster, posted a statement on Epik’s website on Tuesday. In the post, Monster explains that Epik -- a company that hosts the white supremacist website The Daily Stormer -- has decided to not provide hosting-related services to 8chan.
“In cases whereby Epik identifies a particular publisher as being under-equipped to properly enforce its own Terms of Service, Epik reserves the right to deny service,” says Epik’s statement. “Upon careful consideration of the recent operating history of 8Chan, and in the wake of tragic news in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend, Epik has elected to not provide content delivery services to 8Chan.”
This move leaves 8chan with few, if any, friendly hosting security service providers that will enable the site to stay up.
Monster continued to clarify that it wasn’t the extremist content that Epik has a problem with, it’s the inability for 8chan to properly moderate the website.
“This is largely due to the concern of inadequate enforcement and the elevated possibility of violent radicalization on the platform,” the statement says.
After a mass shooter killed 22 people in El Paso, Texas over the weekend, the shooter’s ties to the online imageboard 8chan were discovered. After immense public pressure, Cloudflare, a web services company that provided 8chan with distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack protection, ended its relationship with 8chan, effectively taking it down.
8chan found itself back online Monday morning using a Cloudflare competitor owned by Epik called Bitmitigate. However, soon after, Bitmitigate’s service host, Voxility, terminated its contract with the security provider. This move not only knocked 8chan back offline, but took down Bitmitigate and its hosted websites, such as The Daily Stormer, as well.
While 8chan’s domain is currently not resolving, the site has made its way back online directly via its unsecure, unencrypted IP address.
Bitmitigate has since restored its services as well.
On Gab.com, a far right social network that Epik provides domain registration services for, Monster explained the company’s decision even further.
“We did make the election to not route 8Chan, though we are their registrar,” wrote Monster. “The reason for this is due to concerns about the lack of adequate moderation of a completely anonymous website.”
The Epik CEO also states that while Epik will not provide hosting-related services for 8chan’s content, it will continue to provide registrar services for the website’s 8ch.net domain.
Much like 8chan, Gab found refuge for its domain at Epik after Godaddy cut ties with the site due to its links to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter.
