Gab forced offline following anti-semitic posts by alleged Pittsburgh shooter

PayPal, Stripe and Joyent abandon support of social media site that hosted posts by Robert Bowers

Gab, the social media site popular with the far-right, has been forced offline by its service providers after it became clear that the alleged Pittsburgh shooter Robert Bowers had a history of anti-semitic postings on the site.

Formed in August 2016 after Twitter began cracking down on hate speech on its social network, Gab has been labelled "Twitter for racists" by the website Salon but describes itself as "a free speech website and nothing more". But the platform has proved popular among white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the "alt-right", including the man accused of opening fire on a synagogue in Pennsylvania on Saturday, killing 11.