Available in English Industry Internet | Owner Gab AI, Inc. | |
Type of site Social networking service Headquarters San Mateo, California, United States Slogan(s) Free Speech for Everyone | ||
Gab is a San Mateo, California-based social networking service that allows its users, called Gabbers, to read and write short messages of up to 300 characters called gabs. The site also offers limited multimedia functionality. Gab describes its mission as "to put people and free speech first" by limiting censorship to filtering options made available to Gabbers. Currently, Gab is only accessible to registered users, who must obtain an invitation to join.
Contents
History
Gab was created in August 2016 as an alternative to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Founder and CEO Andrew Torba cited dissatisfaction with "the entirely left-leaning Big Social monopoly" as part of the inspiration for Gab, which he created "after reading reports that Facebook employees suppress conservative articles". Torba said in November that the site's user base had expanded significantly following censorship controversies involving major social media companies, including the permanent suspensions from Twitter of several prominent conservative and "alt-right" accounts.
As of December 2016, the service was still in beta and invitation-only, and submitting an email address placed the user on a waiting list.
Design
Gab's color theme is a minimalist combination of black text on white panels with pink hashtags and usernames. The interface "behaves like a Twitter-Reddit hybrid", displaying messages in a Twitter-like vertically-scrolling timeline format with a Reddit-like option to upvote or downvote each post. The site also aggregates popular posts and trending topic hashtags.
When writing a gab, Gabbers can post up to 300 characters of plain text. Additional functionality is similar to Twitter, using # to create hashtags and @ to reference other users by username. Gabs can embed some multimedia, currently limited to emoji and Giphy animated GIFs. In addition, hyperlinks can be embedded, with some content such as YouTube videos displaying a thumbnail preview.
Each Gab account can optionally be linked to a Twitter account for cross-posting, which can be enabled or disabled before a gab is published. When enabled, the gab is tweeted up to around the first 100 characters, along with a link to the gab.
A frog named "Gabby" is the current logo of Gab which was designed by artist and designer Brandon Perler.
Controversy
The site has drawn criticism for providing a platform for users banned or suspended from other services, including Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopolous, Tila Tequila, and white nationalists such as Richard B. Spencer and "Ricky Vaughn", as well as for not explicitly prohibiting hate speech. The only restrictions on expression on the site are on threats of violence, promotion of terrorism, illegal pornography and doxing.
Although Torba states that the choice of a frog logo was inspired by Bible verses (Exodus 8:1-8:12 and Psalms 78:45) and various other traditional symbolic meanings, it quickly drew comparisons to Pepe the Frog, an internet meme popular with the Alt-Right. He denies that Gab is "designed specifically for conservatives" and has stated that "we welcome everyone and always will". Torba also says that "We want everyone to feel safe on Gab, but we’re not going to police what is hate speech and what isn't."