Epik, domain name registrar and webhost to some of the most unsavoury right-wing platforms including a YouTube-clone that “chortles at the idea of slaughtering and then eating black infants”, and which has a documented history of working with websites that traffic in hate, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, has given Parler a home after it left or was kicked off its previous registrar and its webhost booted it.
Parler calls itself an online haven for free speech is really only a haven for extremist right wing views. Newsweek has described it as “popular with conservatives, far-right groups and conspiracy theorists due to its lack of content moderation”. According to Domain Investing, Parler’s domain name was previously registered with DreamHost, however it is unclear if the registrar kicked the company off or it left of its own volition.
Parler lost their webhost though after Amazon Web Services had had enough of its hatred and calls for violence. Last weekend after the social media giants suspended or deleted Trump’s social media accounts due to incitement to violence, “Amazon Web Services suspended Parler’s web hosting account—effectively deactivating it—while Apple and Google removed it from their app stores,” according to Newsweek.
On Monday numerous media reports noted Parler had transferred its domain name registration to Epik. In a statement Epik said they had “had no contact or discussions with Parler in any form regarding [them] becoming their registrar or hosting provider.” So while Epik says they had no discussions, it’s openly known they welcome such sites. Epik was happy to provide another extremist right-wing platform, Gab, a home when they also lost their registrar and webhosting as well as having hosted the domain name of online message board 8chan. However it cut ties “with 8chan in 2019 following the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, which was linked to violent rhetoric espoused by the platform’s users”, according to Newsweek and “also hosted the Proud Boys’ former domain.” Additionally “PayPal terminated Epik’s account last October for violating its ‘risk controls.’”
The Southern Poverty Law Center in January 2019 said of Epik, “first, the company picked up the glitchy Twitter knockoff Gab after that site was deplatformed for its associations with October’s domestic terror attack at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, which left 11 people dead. Now, the company has picked up the business of BitChute, a low-rent YouTube clone that carries an array of hate-fueled material, including white nationalist podcasts, propaganda linked to a murderous neo-Nazi group and a parody song called ‘N—– Babies,’ which chortles at the idea of slaughtering and then eating black infants.”