Social media site Gab taken offline after Pittsburgh synagogue attack

Oct. 29 (UPI) -- The social media platform Gab has been taken offline after it was connected to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that killed 11 people over the weekend.

Authorities said suspect Robert Bowers used Gab in rants against Jewish followers and illegal immigration. He faces multiple state and federal hate crime charges.

Since the attack Saturday, PayPal has banned the site and Gab's domain register, GoDaddy, moved to end its relationship.

"We have informed Gab.com that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service," GoDaddy told Mashable in a statement.

Gab said in a statement Monday it's helped the U.S. Justice Department and FBI in its investigation.

"Because of the data we provided, they now have plenty of evidence for their case (against Bowers)," Gab CEO Andrew Torba wrote. "We are the most censored, smeared, and no-platformed startup in history, which means we are a threat to the media and to the Silicon Valley Oligarchy.

"Gab isn't going anywhere ... As we transition to a new hosting provider, Gab will be inaccessible for a period of time. We are working around the clock to get Gab.com back online. Thank you and remember to speak freely."

Gab said the publishing platform Medium also suspended its account, which the social media company had used in the past to issue statements.

"Gab is now banned from @medium, they are silencing our statement on the shooting," Gab added in a tweet.

The company has been in operation for about two years ago and has nearly 800,000 users, CNN reported. By comparison, Twitter has about 67 million users and Facebook more than 2 billion.