After being tipped off by a sympathetic employee about imminent bans, the 3D printed gun & boogaloo communities on Keybase are in a tizzy. Keybase, now owned by Zoom, is finally banning homemade firearms & explosives content. A thread- 
3D printed gun groups are some of the largest on Keybase, some with over 26k members. This affinity over guns is why some Boog groups moved there back in July as they were de-platformed elsewhere.
One of the high profile Boog arrests last Fall was for selling parts that are widely made using info from these Keybase channels. Ex: the WV guy selling 3D printed “wall hooks” - really drop-in auto sears (DIAS) that turn a gun into a fully automatic. justice.gov/usao-ndwv/pr/j…
The designers of the parts give their 3D plans cutsie names like “Yankee boogle” and “buenos DIAS”. Others share information and troubleshooting for “wind chime kits” - 80% complete AR parts hooked together with string to resemble a wind chime.
Other channels were full to overflowing with content about homemade bombs, including instructions for how to build delay timers, where and how to buy chemicals without appearing suspicious, and so forth.
After the acquisition by Zoom in May, (ostensibly to serve as an encryption bulwark since Zoom had so many security-related fumbles last spring) Keybase developers seemed to be pulled away from active development, thus turning Keybase into something of a digital “failed state.”
For replacement platforms, so far they seem to be choosing a variety of solutions. One is building their own instances of Rocketchat, two are using Matrix, one is going to remain in place and ride it out, etc.
Important to remember that technical features can drive adoption of a new platform. The reason these guys needed Keybase was for the file system (KBFS), the choice to go there wasn’t random. If you’re making files for 3D printing you need a way to share files; Keybase had that.
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