In early September 2017, Gab faced pressure from its domain registrar Asia Registry to take down a post by The Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin, giving Gab 48 hours to do so. ĭuring August and September 2017, immediately following the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Gab experienced another increase in new users, gaining around 3,300 per week. At the time, Torba claimed that Gab had about 130,000 registered users. By mid-December 2016, there were 200,000 people on Gab's waiting list. During November 2016, Gab gained 5,000 new users per week. Torba said in November 2016 that the site's user base had expanded significantly following censorship controversies involving major social media companies, including the permanent suspensions of several prominent alt-right accounts from Twitter after the 2016 U.S. Utsav Sanduja later joined Gab as chief operating officer (COO). Torba has cited "the entirely left-leaning Big Social monopoly", "social justice bullying", and an alleged bias against conservative articles by Facebook as his reasons for creating Gab. Torba started working on the site in May 2016 and on August 15, 2016, Gab launched in private beta, billing itself as a "free speech" alternative to social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.
Gab was founded by chief executive officer (CEO) Andrew Torba and chief technology officer (CTO) Ekrem Büyükkaya, who had previously worked together at advertising technology company Automate Ads (formerly Kuhcoon).
3.3 COVID-19 vaccine avoidance and disinformation.1.4.1 Storming of the United States Capitol.1.1.1 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
Mastodon released a statement in protest, denouncing Gab as trying to "monetize and platform racist content while hiding behind the banner of free speech".
In July 2019, Gab switched its software infrastructure to a Mastodon fork, a free and open-source social network platform.
Gab also maintains an email service, a text messaging service, and a web browser and browser extension to allow commenting on third-party websites. A microblogging platform, Gab has been described as similar to Twitter. In 2021, Gab was among the platforms used to plan the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6.
After the shooting, Gab briefly went offline when it was dropped by its hosting provider and denied service by several payment processors. Bowers had a history of making extreme, antisemitic postings on the site. The site received extensive public scrutiny following the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in October 2018, after it was found that the sole suspect of the attack, Robert Gregory Bowers, had posted a message on Gab indicating an immediate intent to cause harm before the shooting. Researchers note that Gab has been "repeatedly linked to radicalization leading to real-world violent Antisemitism is prominent in the site's content, and the company itself has engaged in antisemitic commentary on Twitter. Gab says it promotes free speech, individual liberty, and "the free flow of information online", though these statements have been criticized as being a shield for its alt-right and extremist ecosystem. Widely described as a haven for extremists including neo-Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists, the alt-right, and QAnon conspiracy theorists, it has attracted users and groups who have been banned from other social media platforms and users seeking alternatives to mainstream social media platforms. Gab is an American alt-tech social networking service known for its far-right userbase.