Gabufacturing Dissent: An In-Depth Analysis of Gab

by David Thiel, Miles McCain

Gab is a small but growing social media ecosystem catering primarily to far-right communities who believe they are unwelcome—rightly or not—on more mainstream social media platforms. Unlike the more mainstream platforms it hopes to replace, Gab makes very few efforts to moderate the content on its platform. As more mainstream platforms crack down on far-right extremism, that content has been welcomed on Gab. In this report, we provide an in-depth qualitative and qualitative analysis of Gab users and content. We find that after years of slow growth and financial difficulties, Gab was invigorated by new users and money following the January 6th insurrection. We also find that content on Gab can be just as toxic as that on sites previously deplatformed by companies such as Cloudflare and Epik; overtly Nazi content gets significant engagement. More analysis is needed to understand the impact of deplatforming, and whether it may lead to increased funding for extreme platforms and further radicalization.

34 pages, ebook

First published June 1, 2022