Gab experienced a huge growth spurt in H1 2019 as SimilarWeb data shows its traffic between January and July grew almost 200% and unique visitors are up 180%
and that's before 8chan shut down @daithaigilbert https://www.vice.com/... via @vice David Gilbert / @daithaigilbert : Far right social media is seen by many as a fringe business, but @getongab is showing that there's a big audience for what it's selling and it's big business https://www.vice.com/... Rusul / @rusulalrubail : It's no surprise that algorithms are designed with racial bias as a result of lack of representation in Tech: ‘The algorithms that detect hate speech online are biased against black people’ https://www.vox.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Gab has been building toward this moment since its 2016 launch as a haven for the far right with just 98K accounts, surviving financially on $2M raised through two StartEngine crowdfunding rounds enabled by the Jobs Act of 2012. What VICE's David Gilbert documents is that the fringe label no longer fits: SimilarWeb measured nearly 200% traffic growth and 180% unique-visitor growth between January and July 2019.
The timing matters because the surge predates 8chan's shutdown, which Gilbert flags as a further tailwind still to come. Later reporting complicates the raw numbers — an examination of Gab's hacked 65GB data dump found only 1.5M of its 4M+ registered accounts had ever posted — so visitor growth and active participation are not the same thing.
First-order effects
- Gab's crowdfunding-funded operation now has a demonstrably large audience, strengthening its case to StartEngine investors that it is a viable business rather than a marginal protest platform.
Second-order effects
- Mainstream platforms face a harder trade-off: enforcement decisions that push users off established networks measurably feed rival sites like Gab, and 8chan's shutdown was set to accelerate that flow further.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, moderation pressure on mainstream platforms keeps spawning parallel ecosystems — though Gab's own arc shows the ceiling problem, with follower surges on Telegram, Gab, and Gettr after January 6 stalling by 2022 and most registered accounts never posting at all.
The trend: Deplatforming events are repeatedly converting fringe social networks into measurable audiences, but registration spikes consistently outrun sustained active participation.