After the Capitol insurrection, major social media and web hosting platforms that provide the tools for them to stay online, like Amazon Web Services, made substantial efforts to eradicate domestic violent extremists and conspiracy groups like QAnon from their platforms.

AWS removed far-right social media space Parler from its services, causing it to go temporarily offline. 

Since then, many of these far-right groups have jumped to online spaces like Gab.

These alternative hosting companies hold terms of service that allow hate speech and other unfavorable content to flourish on their platforms. 

The most well-known of these alternative hosting sites is Epik, backed by CEO Rob Monster, who over the years has provided services to several hate-speech-filled message boards like neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer and 8chan. 

 

In some cases, Epik has stepped in to provide these services after far-right spaces were dropped by their original web hosting providers. 

For example, after it was revealed that the perpetrator of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting used Gab to post hate speech, the site was subsequently dropped by GoDaddy. Still, Epik stepped in to provide domain hosting services so Gab could stay online.

After being dropped by AWS, it also stepped in to provide Parler with domain hosting services. 

"What we're seeing now is some of the more reputable companies saying that we're not going to be a part of that, we're not going to let our systems be abused," said Bret Schafer, Media, and Digital Disinformation Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy. "There is a huge ecosystem that allows disinformation to be monetized, and I think the more reputable companies are seeing this as a challenge to their business."

Jack Bratich, author and Rutgers University professor, said one worry he has about the pairing of companies like Epik and Gab is that it not only makes these companies financially dependent on each other, it also allows them to push different potentially dangerous ideologies even further. 

"I think there's something bigger going on socially and culturally around these media platforms... that expands beyond both the financial incentives," Bratich said. "This is tied to a kind of development of a kind of Christian nationalism and a desire for a kind of a theocracy in the U.S. People like [Rob] Monster, who owns Epik, have been pretty forthcoming about that."

Tyler Adkisson at Newsy first reported this story.

A web hosting company that has provided services to several controversial right-wing websites has confirmed that it has been hacked. CNN and The Washington Post report that the information has been made public by hacking collective Anonymous.

CNN and The Post report that 150 gigabytes of previously private data have been made public. Experts believe that the massive hack could shed more light on the far-right groups that attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and or advocate for violence against certain racial and ethnic groups.

The hosting company, Epik, has made a name for itself by providing web hosting capabilities to far-right groups who have been kicked offline by other companies who refuse to host their hateful content.

In recent years, Epik has provided hosting services to 8chan (a website that hosted the racist manifesto of a gunman who killed 51 people at a mosque shooting in New Zealand), Gab (a social media site that hosted the antisemitic rants of the Pittsburgh synagogue gunman) and Parler (an app on which some users coordinated the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol).

Epik was also in the news earlier this month for providing hosting capabilities to the Texas Right to Life's "Abortion Whistleblower" page — an online form that was ultimately removed because Epik said it violated its terms of service.

On Sept. 13, independent journalist Steven Monacelli was the first to report that the hackers had stolen the private information about Epik's clients. Days later, Epik confirmed that "certain customer information for our domain-related systems was accessed and downloaded by unauthorized third parties."

According to The Post and CNN, Anonymous has taken credit for the hack. The internet vigilantes are known for conducting political activism through cyberhacking.

The Post adds that since the hack, Epik's security protocols "have been the target of ridicule among researchers" who say the company failed to take basic security precautions.

CNN spoke to experts who said that researchers would spend "months" pouring over the now-public data. They say the hack will likely provide new insight into the far-right ecosystem and the leaders of many of the U.S.'s most prominent hate groups.

Rumors began emerging from far-right circles claiming the pro-Trump mob of protesters that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday was made up or infiltrated by members of antifa, despite no evidence of this being the case.

Several posts, particularly on the right-leaning social media platform Parler, shared images that posters claimed as evidence antifa demonstrators were behind the riot. The images did not, however, show any antifa involvement, and in many instances suggested ties to far-right extremist groups like the Proud Boys, or conspiracy movements like QAnon.

President Donald Trump, in a now-deleted video to his supporters, even acknowledged the group as his supporters, saying "we love you" and repeating a baseless claim the election was stolen from them. The riot began after Trump, speaking at a rally, directed the crowd to go to the Capitol.

Related video: Trump urges Capitol protesters to 'go home now'

One frequent act of misinformation being spread is to show a picture of a member of the mob of protesters side by side with a picture of the same person at a Black Lives Matter rally or among a group of antifa members. However these images often leave out context as to whether the person in question was at these rallies as an ally or a counter-protester to groups like BLM.

A frequently employed example being the well-recognized man wearing a horned headdress who was a part of the riot. A picture of him attending a BLM protest is often shared suggesting he is secretly an antifa supporter, but while at the BLM protest, he held a counter-protest sign saying "Q SENT ME." The sign is often cropped out.

On Twitter, there were more than 1,250 posts from accounts related to the QAnon conspiracy theory about Wednesday's protests containing terms of violence since Jan. 1. The most basic QAnon belief casts President Trump as the hero in a fight against the "deep state" and a sinister cabal of Democratic politicians and celebrities who abuse children.

One post from a QAnon-related account retweeted a post with a baseless conspiracy theory that Democrats, Black Lives Matter activists, and Antifa protestors were planning to kill Trump supporters and advocated for whoever noticed these individuals to get "rid of them."

Despite the lack of evidence, U.S. Congressmen, Louie Gohmert, R-TX, and Mo Brooks, R-AL, spread this conspiracy theory on Twitter. Later Wednesday night, Congressman Matt Goetz, R-FL, also pushed these false claims while speaking to the House.

Lin Wood, a pro-Trump attorney who is involved with the QAnon movement, sent several viral tweets that falsely claimed that members of antifa were inside the Capitol. A commonly shared image he posted features a bearded man wearing a hoodie seen among the mob inside the Capitol posted with another photo of supposedly the same person, the second photo having come from “PhillyAntifa.org,” suggesting he is actually antifa.

“Indisputable photographic evidence that antifa violently broke into Congress today to inflict harm & do damage,” Wood said on Twitter. “NOT @realDonaldTrump supporters.”

But the page on phillyantifa.org is not of him being involved with the group, but of the group accusing him to be a member of a neo-Nazi group.

CNN contributed to this report.

ACWORTH, Ga. —

A 21-year-old man has been captured in southwest Georgia, hours after eight people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors.

Cherokee County sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker said Robert Aaron Long of Woodstock, Georgia, was taken into custody in Crisp County on Tuesday night, about 150 miles south of Atlanta.

Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said three people were killed at a spa in northeast Atlanta, while a fourth person was killed at another spa across the street. He said all three victims were female, and “It appears that they may be Asian.”

Atlanta police officers responding to a call of a robbery in progress at one spa around 5:50 p.m. found three women dead from apparent gunshot wounds, police said. While they were at that scene, they learned of a call reporting shots fired at another spa across the street and found a woman who appeared to have been shot dead inside the business.

Earlier in the afternoon, authorities in Cherokee County, north of Atlanta, said three people were killed and two others injured at a massage parlor there, according to local news outlets.

It appears that all five victims were shot inside the business, Cherokee County sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The suspect was captured by surveillance video pulling up to the business around 4:50 p.m. Tuesday, minutes before the shooting, authorities said.

Authorities late Tuesday were searching for a suspect seen driving a dark-colored SUV. The sheriff’s office posted surveillance pictures on its Facebook page, asking people to share the images that show the man near the vehicle. They described the man as a suspect, and asked that anyone who recognizes him or the vehicle call 911.

The gunfire temporarily shut down traffic near the Cherokee County business located in the 6400 block of Highway 92, about 30 miles northwest of Atlanta.

Atlanta police said they had been in touch with authorities in Cherokee County. They said it was too early to tell whether the shootings were linked but that they were looking into that possibility.

With two shootings at massage parlors in Atlanta and the knowledge of the Cherokee County shootings, Atlanta police said they dispatched officer to check nearby similar businesses and increased patrols in the area.