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    Meet The Man Behind Epik, The Tech Firm Keeping Far-Right Websites Alive

    Rob Monster, the chief executive of Epik, says his company's deals with websites Parler, Gab, BitChute and others is an act of free speech advocacy. Others say Epik is supporting hate speech.
    by Bobby Allyn Feb 08, 2021 4 minutes
    Epik CEO Rob Monster standing in the backyard of his home in Sammamish, Wash.

    When websites flooded with hate speech or harmful disinformation become too radioactive for the Internet, the sites often turn to one company for a lifeline.

    That company is run by Rob Monster, a 53-year-old Dutch-American.

    "If you wanted to cast a villain who was going to be the Lex Luther of the Internet, Rob Monster is about as good as it gets," he joked during a recent interview at his lakeside home in the former logging community of Sammamish, Wash., outside of Seattle.

    Monster's website-services company Epik, which calls itself "the Swiss bank of the domain industry," kept a fairly modest profile for years by buying and selling popular names like Diamond.com and

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