State lawmakers who represent the area surrounding Tree of Life synagogue — the site of the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history — criticized Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano on Thursday for paying Gab, the social media platform frequented by the accused synagogue shooter before the 2018 massacre, for “consulting services” for his campaign.

Mr. Mastriano, a state senator facing Democrat Josh Shapiro in the November election, paid $5,000 to Gab in April, a sum that Gab’s founder, CEO Andrew Torba, said was for an advertising campaign, Pittsburgh NPR Radio station WESA reported last week. Mr. Torba and Gab legal officials have framed the site as a platform for free speech and an antidote to more liberal social media outlets. The Anti-Defamation League has called it a “haven for extremists, conspiracy theorists and misinformation.”

Joining a group of leaders assembled by Mr. Shapiro’s campaign on Thursday, state Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, called Gab a “festering cesspool of intolerance,” and said it helped radicalize and encourage accused Tree of Life gunman Robert Bowers, who used the site for antisemitic rants before killing 11 at the synagogue.

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The Anti-Defamation League, in a report in 2019, said that Mr. Bowers was motivated by the idea that whites are in danger of being overrun by non-whites, and found an audience of similar extremists on Gab. Sen. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, said Thursday that Mr. Mastriano’s payment to Gab — and his postings on the site — show that he wants to garner the support of people who have “nothing but hate in their heart.”

Mr. Mastriano has posted at least 60 times on Gab since joining in February, WESA reported — and of 157 comments from users responding to his posts, at least two dozen were antisemitic insults about Mr. Shapiro, who is Jewish.