When was Gab founded?

Gab was founded in 2016 by Andrew Torba and launched publicly that same year. It was among the first social platforms explicitly built as an alternative to Twitter on free speech grounds — before the wave of high-profile deplatforming that defined 2018–2021.

Timeline of key milestones

• 2016: Gab founded and launched. Positioned as a free-speech Twitter alternative.
• 2017: Google removes Gab from the Play Store.
• 2018: A coordinated deplatforming campaign targeting Gab leads Apple and Google to remove Gab from app stores; hosting and payment providers suspend service. Gab goes offline briefly before rebuilding its infrastructure independently.
• 2020–2021: Post-election deplatforming wave on mainstream platforms drives significant user growth to Gab.
• 2021–present: Continued growth; Gab AI (uncensored AI chat) launched; Gab Marketplace expanded.

Context

Gab's 2018 crisis — when it was taken offline across hosting, payment processing, and app stores simultaneously — became a defining moment in the platform's history and a case study in the deplatforming strategies used against alt-tech platforms. The response was to rebuild with fully independent infrastructure, which is why Gab has been consistently online since then despite continued pressure.