Gab, a far-right social network that erupted in popularity after the riots at the U.S. Capitol, was offline on Friday evening and its Twitter account also darkened.
Twitter users first started publishing the website and his associated social media account went down around 6:30 p.m., Eastern Time.
At least one Twitter user who claimed to be in Gab just before dark on Friday night he speculated that the site was hacked as part of a cryptocurrency scam. The Post could not verify this theory.
The site was backed up before midnight on Friday, along with a post from CEO Andrew Torba explaining that he had withdrawn “as a precaution” after less than 20 accounts began to “post” bitcoin spam and related content “.
“Because of our swift action, zero bitcoins have been sent to any of the published addresses and the affected accounts have been secured,” the statement says.
A “security vulnerability” has been added to the site’s code base.
Gab was disconnected in 2018 by his host after the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre posted anti-Semitic ramblings and conspiracy theories. He then began accepting cryptocurrencies for payments to avoid tech companies.