Analysis: many right-wing personalities saw their followers surge on sites like Telegram, Gab, and Gettr after the January 6 riot, but growth has since stalled
possibly to be joined soon by Trump's long-promised social network, Truth Social — can build a sustainable business solely by catering to a radicalized right.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @getongab : @IntelTweet “Not very popular” and yet we are going to have 90 million visits this month, more than most major news sites. Keep telling yourself that. Gab is inevitable and Christ is going to be put first again in this country. https://twitter.com/... Oliver Willis / @owillis : theres no libs to own in the right wing echo chamber https://twitter.com/... Emerson T. Brooking / @etbrooking : Deplatforming is set to become one of the main far-right issues heading into the 2022 midterms. Why? Because unlike most platform interventions, it actually works. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Jared Holt / @jaredlholt : Some really interesting data here https://twitter.com/... Charles Johnson / @green_footballs : Of course; there are no liberals to troll there. What fun is it to just listen to other wingnuts rant? Pro-Trump influencers flocked to alternative social networks. Their follower counts stalled soon after. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Jeff Jarvis / @jeffjarvis : And yet media continue to treat Trump's “base” as a force. Pro-Trump influencers flocked to alternative social networks. Their follower counts stalled soon after. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Jeff Atwood / @codinghorror : deplatforming *works* https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The post-January 6 migration was real but shallow: after Trump's bans sent alternative apps to the top of the app store charts, right-wing personalities banked quick follower surges on Telegram, Gab, and Gettr. This analysis finds those gains have already flattened — echoing the pattern from 2017, when alt-right alternatives struggled to hold talent, users, and funding.
The stakes are whether any of these platforms can become a durable business rather than a refuge that spikes during news cycles. Gab's own response to skepticism — touting tens of millions of monthly visits — frames the fight over whether raw traffic converts into staying power.
First-order effects
- The personalities who rode the surge now face flat audiences on Telegram, Gab, and Gettr, capping the reach their media businesses can sell against.
- Telegram's post-riot moderation turn — shutting down public white supremacist channels for the first time after 11.9M riot-week downloads — removed part of the ecosystem these figures had grown into.
Second-order effects
- Competition for a finite displaced audience intensifies: Trump's entry with Truth Social directly cannibalizes the same users, and within months it had passed Gab, Parler, and the other right-wing platforms in unique visitors.
- With organic growth exhausted, commentators who built careers on this circuit are pushed toward escalating shock tactics to hold a shrinking pool of 'normal people' attention.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the alt-platform market consolidates around whichever host a single dominant personality chooses — platform loyalty follows the person, not the network, leaving second-tier sites like Gab and Gettr structurally subordinate.
- Recurring boom-and-stall cycles since 2017 suggest deplatformed ecosystems cannot self-sustain on ideology alone; they need either mainstream-scale distribution or a patron with mainstream-scale pull.
The trend: Alternative right-wing social platforms keep cycling through ban-driven spikes and stalls, with audience gravity consolidating around individual personalities rather than any single network.