The social media platform Gab, a networking site popular with far-right users, has seen an increase in website traffic and growth following the attacks on Capitol and President Trump
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Gab Andrew Torba chief executive said the platform had a 40 percent increase in traffic during the riots that killed five people, and according to NPR led to dozens of arrests..
Torba founded the company in 2016 and promoted it as a platform for free speech. According to Business Insider, Gab is regularly visited by right-wing activists. The site is similar to Twitter and contains a main feed and an exploration area.
Earlier Saturday, the platform tweeted that it gained more than 10,000 users within an hour and received 12 million visits within 12 hours, according to Insider.
The increase in involvement in Gab comes after videos appeared on the platform Wednesday of rioters showing them breaking into the Capitol and talking to each other about finding Vice President Pence during the security breach, according to a report by The New York Times.
The Times reported that users involved in the violent attack on Capitol Hill communicated with each other about Gab about where to gather and what streets they should take to avoid police.
However, Torba responded to a statement from the Times in a statement later Wednesday, saying that, ‘[W]e do not provisionally scan the user’s content for criminal speech, ”Torba said. “Before the Capitol was occupied by protesters, we had no idea what would come of today’s protest in DC.”
“The majority of our users use Gab on desktop devices, which is obviously not easy to bring and use during a demonstration,” Torba said.
Other sites that have seen an increase in traffic since the election night in November include Parler, TheDonald and MeWe. These social platforms have minimal content moderation compared to apps like Twitter and Facebook.
On Wednesday, a crowd of supporters of President Trump marched to the Capitol to block the certification of the elected president of Congress Joe Biden
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The mob violated the safety of Capitol, smashed windows and vandalized the offices of lawmakers. The violation also led to legislators, media and staff evacuating both the House and Senate floors and finding shelter in unknown places.
Supporters of the president have been thinking on various platforms about the possibility of violence at the Capitol until Wednesday’s attacks. Reports on sites like Parler were full of reports about the storm on the Capitol.
Following the riots on Wednesday, Trump was permanently suspended from Twitter after stating that his posts ‘carry the risk of further incitement to violence’.