Removing content creators from social media platforms: How do consumers fill the attention void? The Case of Donald Trump's deplatforming

On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump was suddenly deplatformed from all major social media platforms. We leverage this exogenous shock to study attention economy dynamics. Following the removal of an “Attention catalyst”: (1) Do consumers remain or disengage from the platform? (2) If they remain, do they redirect their attention to close substitutes (other politicians) or distant replacements (commercial brands)? (3) Are there systematic patterns guiding the redistribution? In sum, we find that consumers close to Donald Trump, whether positively (Conservatives) or negatively (Liberals), disengage from the platform. Among the consumers who remain, we observe an “Attention spillover” effect towards distant replacements. This effect is asymmetric: it is particularly persistent for Liberals, while almost non-existent for Conservatives. Finally, we observe that the political affiliation of brands also influences attention gains, with Non-aligned and Democrat-leaning brands benefiting most.