Gab, through Torba, has always pitched itself as an alternative to Silicon Valley social media sites, attracting a user base of people who believe companies like Twitter and Facebook are deliberately censoring their views. In 2016, when Twitter strengthened its policy against "hateful conduct" and banned a number of far-right and white supremacist accounts, Torba said Gab gained 60,000 users in eight days.

The platform itself is a combination of many of the sites that Gab would like to replace. The site works like a hybrid of Reddit and Twitter, where users can post character-limited messages, and respond, comment and vote other users' posts up or down. Alex Jones, who has 55,000 followers on Gab, often promotes his live broadcasts there since he has been banned from YouTube and Twitter. -My San Antonio