Andrew Torba from Gab addresses today's apparent hack and downtime 📦

18    09 Mar 2021 04:17 by u/None

The attacker who stole data from Gab harvested OAuth2 bearer tokens during their initial attack. Though their ability to harvest new tokens was patched, we did not clear all tokens related to the original attack. By reusing these old tokens, the attacker was able to post 177 statuses in an 8-minute period today. We have not independently verified the information that the hacker posted is authentic. Gab immediately took the site offline, suspecting this was a new attack. We have been able to confirm it was not a new attack, have cleared all compromised tokens, and are requiring users to log in again. As this is not a new attack and no new data has been compromised, there is no need to change your password or take any other action. We apologize for the inconvenience, and are very confident this will not happen again.

15 comments

9 u/Tiltowait 09 Mar 2021 08:00
Either they'll be destroyed or come out of the other side much stronger. The right is being put under tremendous evolutionary pressures right now and it's make or break. Either we come out the other side or end up with our children turning us in to the NKVD for crimethink.
6 u/Retrofire 09 Mar 2021 08:07
idk why people just think it's "the right" being crushed here. I'm liberal, there are tons of liberals on Ruqqus. The information war is on any dissent. That includes an increasing number of left-leaning people like me. tbh I'm still confused about how to even describe myself. I'm like half-way to the left, but very far-down (so moreso libertarian I guess?). Point is the opposition to this shit is fairly significant and diverse.
2 u/Tiltowait 09 Mar 2021 08:13
Left and liberal are different ideologies. How do you tell the difference between liberals and leftists? Easy. Liberals believe in freedom of speech. They might disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it. Leftists, on the other hand, freely use censorship as a weapon of first resort. Their own positions are so weak that if people are allowed to point out the many problems, they would collapse. Left or Liberal? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlIjMJBSnRE What is a Classical Liberal? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsba-dNApvw
1 u/Retrofire 09 Mar 2021 08:17
i find this methodology very confusing. Isn't "left" just a massive net to describe everyone that falls to the *left* of the arbitrary political compass? How can you define the word "left" as a unique ideology? Isn't liberalism by nature residing to the *left*? I don't get it lol
2 u/Tiltowait 09 Mar 2021 08:24
No. The "political compass" is oversimplified and good for some fun, but not much else. If you're in favor of freedom of speech, you're liberal. No matter right/left/whatever. "I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it" is the founding statement of liberalism. Today you might use the phrase "classical liberal" to avoid confusion. >Liberals wanted to free people from domineering institutions so they could pursue their own happiness and goals. They also understood that free individuals are more productive, more charitable, more innovative, and more inclined to cooperate with others. The left hijacked the label liberal, something they have never been. After they ruined and destroyed the meaning they moved on to "progressive". Leftists hate liberals, just ask them. "Liberals get the bullet too" is a common catchphrase, referring to the executions they plan after their revolution succeeds. >We must stop using the word liberal to denote present-day statists. This should be easy since they themselves have largely abandoned the term in favor of “progressives.” Here's a scholarly movement that might explain better: http://liberalismunrelinquished.net They have an examples page with a bunch of links you can follow: https://liberalismunrelinquished.net/lu-discussions/
1 u/Retrofire 09 Mar 2021 08:53
OK here's my confusion. "Left" theoretically denotes individuals who reside to the *left* on the political compass. You are disregarding the political compass while simultaneously using it. That's a diverse group of individuals. How can you categorize ALL of them as believing in the war on intolerance? Alongside that, you say "leftists" hate classical liberals. But technically I'm a leftist, do I hate myself? *Maybe* But I don't subscribe to their ideology, despite residing within this demographic you describe as "the left" I've always been under the impression that liberalism was inherently to the *left*, too. But taking a step back I would agree that the political compass is useless garbage. Butttt we still use it
2 u/Tiltowait 09 Mar 2021 09:16
>I've always been under the impression that liberalism was inherently to the left, too. Absolutely it's not. I totally get the confusions. I too incorrectly used the term for a long time. The political compass is for memes, it's not some kind of end-all be-all of political views. For example, people can be culturally conservative and fiscally liberal. What would you call the people who voted for Obama twice and Trump twice? It's just a two-axis scale. Lots of fun but please don't take it seriously. >In the 17th and 18th centuries there was an ascendant cultural outlook that may be termed the liberal outlook. It was best represented by the Scottish enlightenment, especially Adam Smith, and it flowed into a liberal era, which came to be represented politically by people like Richard Cobden, William Gladstone, and John Bright. The liberal outlook revolved around a number of central terms (in English-language discourse, the context of the semantic issue that concerns us). That's what liberal *actually* means. But its meaning has been screwed up lately because leftists appropriated it because it sounded noble. They used it up, trashed it, and now they have the new label progressive. The root of liberal is *liberty*. If you believe people should be able to do what they want to do, for the most part with the usual exceptions, then that's liberalism. If you tend toward the governmentalization of social affairs, then that's leftism. But leave that silly political compass behind. People are far more complicated than that. The biggest champions of free speech and liberal values in America right now are right wingers and classical liberals like Johnathan Haidt. Have you heard of Haidt? Fascinating man. Here's a quick TED talk by him that is right up your alley, please give it a click: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html
1 u/Retrofire 09 Mar 2021 09:48
Let's operate on the "fuck the compass" premise. How can you say that, while simultaneously describing this demographic as the *left* (denoting the left of the political compass)? It just seems contradictory and like an oversimplification to me, which you appear to detest. Going along with the premise of liberalism being disconnected from the left-right axiom, you say it pertains predominantly to the concept of *liberty*. Wouldn't that more aptly describe libertarians? I'll be sure to watch the video, thx!!
1 u/Tiltowait 09 Mar 2021 09:52
Libertarians follow the philosophy of Ayn Rand, called Objectivism. This is a rejection of altruism, from what I understand. I never really studied it, honestly. They go a little too far, but sometimes have good ideas. School choice, for example. See, this whole "liberal" thing is a mess and you have to go back to the original meaning for it to make sense. Just means people should be left, for the most part, to make their own decisions, Including their own mistakes. A desire to stop people from making the "wrong" decisions is what modern leftism is about. It's why they censor so heavily. Please do give Haidt's talk a watch, it explains so much of what you're not clear on: https://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html
1 u/Retrofire 09 Mar 2021 10:01
I appreciate your replies. But you keep dodging my main point!! >Let's operate on the "fuck the compass" premise. How can you say that, while simultaneously describing this demographic as the left (denoting the left of the political compass)? It just seems contradictory and like an oversimplification to me, which you appear to detest.
1 u/Tiltowait 09 Mar 2021 10:25
Sigh. "The Left" does not denote the left side of the political compass. The term dates from the 1790s, when in the French revolutionary parliament the socialist representatives sat to the presiding officer’s left. The political compass started as one of those online personality tests that were so popular on the AOL-era internet.
1 u/Retrofire 09 Mar 2021 10:28
Alright, thanks for explaining. That's extraordinarily confusing 😊
1 u/Tiltowait 09 Mar 2021 10:32
You see how far back this stuff goes. You have to know what we were talking about in Western culture hundreds of years ago to know what's going on now. We've made these mistakes before and learned from them. That's why the Western canon is under attack like never before: it teaches us to avoid these mistakes and learn the wisdom of the ages. Unfortunately some people want to tear it all apart and start from Year Zero. This would be a monumental catastrophe.
5 u/selim 09 Mar 2021 08:33
Please stay strong and keep improving. The game is now in hell-mode.
2 u/None [OP] 09 Mar 2021 13:04
Good luck gab. Do not capitulate, get stronger. It's already a far bigger platform than ruqqus and has even more freedoms.