From “Welcome New Gabbers” to the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting: The Evolution of Gab

Authors

  • Reid McIlroy-Young University of Toronto
  • Ashton Anderson University of Toronto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v13i01.3264

Abstract

Gab, an online social media platform with very little content moderation, has recently come to prominence as an alt-right community and a haven for hate speech. We document the evolution of Gab since its inception until a Gab user carried out the most deadly attack on the Jewish community in US history. We investigate Gab language use, study how topics evolved over time, and find that the shooters’ posts were among the most consistently anti-Semitic on Gab, but that hundreds of other users were even more extreme.

Downloads

Published

2019-07-06

How to Cite

McIlroy-Young, R., & Anderson, A. (2019). From “Welcome New Gabbers” to the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting: The Evolution of Gab. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 13(01), 651-654. https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v13i01.3264