Run by a Canadian webmaster exposed by antifascist activists, files obtained by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network appear to show that Poast suffered a data breach, exposing information on its user base to the world.
Peter Smith
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
A social media site providing a home to large amounts of hate speech and racism has suffered a data breach exposing user emails, private messages, and shared media to the public.
Owned and operated by Ontario resident Daniel Stevens, Poast is a home for massive amounts of racism and extreme content.
Three compressed files posted online purport to contain the leaked data. While the completeness of the leak cannot be independently confirmed, Stevens, posting as the site’s administrator under the name Graf, offers his users a technical explanation of how the breach occurred.
According to his message on Poast, on May 20, a user uploaded an obfuscated javascript file to the site. This, along with a site set up the day before, saves authorization tokens generated during login to collect user data, “giving that server the encoded token” and appearing to be a legitimate part of Poast’s infrastructure.
“No user password or anything beyond email:user and your chats and media associated with them have been archived and everybody's tokens were dropped forcing you to all relog on your accounts,” Stevens wrote on May 25. “This is to ensure that if any of you had tokens exposed by viewing this JavaScript, they are no longer functional on Poast.
“Sorry to anybody I let down but I could never have foreseen this level of sophistication and I would not have ever expected it.”
Besides the admin, Poast has numerous users that claim to be living in Canada or using Canadian email addresses.
Stevens was exposed by antifascist activists, the Anonymous Comrad Collective, as the man behind Poast and the Graf username in 2021. The identification was built from statements he made across multiple accounts on Poast and Twitter. According to direct messages contained in the leak, Graf’s account tells several individuals that his name is correct but claims other details of the exposé are wrong. The Graf account currently is listed as residing in Ontario.
Daniel Stevens did not respond immediately to a request for comment. If one is received we will update accordingly.
Poast exists as part of the Fediverse, a series of interconnected servers that run independently of one another, yet can interact, share content, and more. Mastodon, a Twitter alternative and the largest server (called instances) in the federated network, takes a strong stance against hate speech, while Poast embraces it. Stevens’ account, while denying any far-right or political affiliations, has previously called Poast “the most racist social media site on the planet.”
“This is not a ‘dissident right’ platform,” he wrote in a pinned post. “This is a platform for people to speak on without fear of political censorship. If anybody tells you this website is right-wing they are wrong, including any publication that in future refers to this website as right-wing – they are the most false and should be drawn and quartered for perpetuating this lie.”
Despite his protests, many recent posts from the Graf account include shares of antisemitic statements, neo-Nazi imagery, as well as racial slurs. Despite this, Poast is moderated to a certain degree. In the leaks, users sometimes appeal to Graf directly for removal.
“This week, our beloved [Poast] came under attack by some combination of glown*****s, Jews, and f*****s,” one of the posts shared by Stevens reads. “Fighting back requires resources.”
The same account’s username contains several custom emojis unique to Poast, including a swastika, the Russian “Z,” and the logo of the National Justice Party – an American neo-Nazi organization and political party.
This article was updated to clarify Poast's moderation practices.
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