Effectiveness of deplatforming on spontaneous versus deliberate attention

Establish whether deplatforming is more effective in reducing spontaneous attention—incidental exposure to influencers on mainstream platforms—than deliberate attention—consumption by dedicated audiences on alternative platforms—and characterize the differences between these two kinds of online attention.

Background

The paper contrasts previous findings: deplatforming influencers on mainstream platforms lowers overall online attention, while deplatforming an entire fringe platform (Parler) did not reduce total activity across fringe platforms, suggesting distinct attention dynamics.

Building on this contrast, the authors conjecture that deplatforming primarily impacts spontaneous attention from everyday users on mainstream platforms, as opposed to deliberate attention among dedicated audiences on fringe platforms, and call for further exploration of these attention types.