RIGHTWING PLATFORMS FALTER

Alternative social media platforms that saw a surge in users immediately after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are failing to maintain growth anywhere near those levels more than two months after the insurrection.

The Capitol riot, coupled with former President Trump’s removal from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, provided a rare opportunity for alternative social media platforms to challenge the established players. But after an initial spike in activity, many of the sites that tried to win over frustrated fans of the former president have lost steam.

Three examples: U.S. mobile downloads of platforms like MeWe, the social network started as a privacy-focused alternative to Facebook, and Rumble, conservative commentator Dan Bongino’s response to YouTube, fell upward of 80 percent from January to February, according to data shared with The Hill by Sensor Tower. CloutHub, another platform favored by those on the right, declined by a similar amount during that period.