This afternoon I received an email from the Washington Post. I’m going to publish it here and share my response in full.
Hi Andrew,
We’re working on a story about how pro-Trump and conservative commentators, influencers and content creators have seen their audiences change on Gab, Gettr, Rumble and Telegram over the last year. We analyzed the data for 47 accounts on those sites and found that, for the most part, everyone saw a big jump in followers or subscribers when Trump was banned from the mainstream sites after Jan. 6; the accounts’ follower growth dramatically stalled and plateaued over the rest of the year; and the few big follower jumps we’ve seen in recent months have mostly come as a response to the bans of high-profile conservatives like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Twitter and Facebook.
The sites themselves do appear to be growing, but some of the more prominent pro-Trump figures were analyzed have seen their growth rates become very slow or even decline.
For Gab specifically, Alex Jones, who joined in 2016, went from gaining roughly 25,000 followers a month in the first quarter of 2021 to about 1,000 followers a month for the rest of the year, the data show. The Gab follower counts for some prominent QAnon promoters have also grown by 1 percent or less per month since last spring.
Have you seen that trend? What do you think explains it?
Does this call into question the ability of alt-tech sites to be able to build an audience or a business long-term – and if not, why?
Some experts told us that these platforms focused on conservative politics are naturally limited in their appeal. There’s also a good amount of competition among them, and they’re in conflict with some giant, years-old platforms where many users already have established accounts and relationships. Any thoughts on those arguments?
I’m also planning to include your comments about Gettr (“The Regime is in panic mode. So out comes Grifter to distract the masses.”). Anything you can elaborate on? Why do you think Gettr is a grift, and is the same true about “TRUTH Social”? I know you’ve spoken about this elsewhere, but I’d appreciate anything you can tell me here or link me to.
Any other responses or context we should note?
Thanks for any information you can share, and please let us know if you’d have a moment to talk. Our deadline is tomorrow at 12 p.m. EST.
Drew Harwell
When Big Tech bans, Gab expands.
100% of our explosive growth is being propelled by the unforced errors of Silicon Valley. Tens of millions of people are visiting Gab every month because Gab is the one place on the internet where the free flow of information exists beyond the control of the Regime. Gab is the one and only platform to not bend the knee to the mainstream media, Apple and Google App Stores, banks, payment processors, Congress, and even the entire nation state of Germany.
Outlets like yours rightfully view Gab as a threat to your business because of this, and you should. In November 2021 the Washington Post had 116 million visits according to Similarweb. Gab had 70 million. This month we are on pace to have 90m+ visits and with election season in full swing we don’t see our growth slowing down anytime soon.
I can and will send my response to you out with one click right now and get more traffic than your article will before it is even published.
Your outlet is 144 years old. I founded Gab 5 years ago and run it from my basement in the middle of the woods.
Gab now has well over 50 candidates in the 2022 election using the platform along with multiple members of Congress and the biggest dissident voices on the internet all in one spot. We have medical doctors, nurses, and hundreds of thousands of people who do not support nor want to inject themselves with an experimental vaccine joining our platform. These people are from all different political backgrounds, beliefs, and creeds.
The growth and engagement of one small subset of 47 commentators is irrelevant to Gab’s growth overall as a free speech platform for all people. If you want my personal opinion as to why pro-Trump commentators aren’t growing as fast on alt-tech platforms it’s really very simple. President Trump has turned into a vaccine salesman which is a total and complete disconnect with the overwhelming vast majority of his voting base. I say this as someone who voted for him twice.
His non-stop vaccine shilling has turned many of his supporters off completely. You can see this plainly in the comment section of the statements that are published to his reserved Gab account. As a Regime propaganda outlet I understand that you are trying to craft a narrative that alt-tech is shrinking and doomed because pro-Trump commentators are shrinking, but the numbers and reality show a much different situation here.
People aren’t and never were coming to Gab for an online Trump rally.
People are coming to Gab for the Truth and to speak freely.
You can read more of my thoughts on Gettr and Rumble here.
Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com
Jesus Christ is King of Kings
