Wasn’t the Free Republic platform decoupled?
No, FR's server was at a datacenter and the datacenter was shut down and moved to a new location.
Not officially. The hosting provider moved up a planned upgrade/ move to this weekend on short notice.
John worked miracles, as always, and got us back up in less than a day.
But FR is now much better prepared for a deplatforming, should one occur under Harris/Biden.