A social network that champions free speech, individual liberty, and the free flow of information online
- Site Name: gab.com
- Date Created: August 15, 2016
- Number of Users: 1 million users (as of July 19)
- Typical Users: Interested in free speech, conspiracy theories, the alt-right and racist views.
As a champion of free speech, the Gab social media network homepage states that all are welcome. Its founders Andrew Torba and Ekrem Büyükkaya created the social network as a reaction to the mainstream social media platforms, which they perceived to be censoring the posts of its more right-leaning users. (It does have a few types of posts it forbids, however: llegal porn, threats of violence or terrorism and doxing).
After its launch, Gab grew quickly, with 1.5 million posts a month by 2018. According to SimilarWeb, it now boasts almost 4 million visitors a day on average. The social network is known to be highly attractive to alt-right extremists, including neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and others.
Gab made headlines after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in October 2018 when the shooter’s anti-semitic posts were later revealed on the network.
Here are a few posts of the different types of extremist rhetoric you can find on Gab:
Extracting data from Gab can be challenging since the content is password protected. Using our technology, Webz.io overcomes that, automatically providing updated data in near-real-time.
Gab is a great example of the type of raw, unstructured data that Webz.io delivers in structured format in over 80 languages in every country and territory. Our Dark Web Monitoring API includes comprehensive coverage of discussions from this and other networks, message boards, review sites and forums to allow organizations and businesses to gain access to public opinion and customer sentiment to better understand trends on social channels.
Want to learn more about the sources we cover in the deep and dark web? Contact one of our dark web data experts to learn more today!
