Deplatforming Donalda Trumpa – przyczyny oraz implikacje prawne i związane z komunikacją polityczną:

Konrad Oświecimski

doi:10.35765/hp.2925

Published : 2025-12-31

Vol. 16 No. 57 (2025)

The deplatforming of Donald Trump – causes and legal and political communication implications

Konrad Oświecimski

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0873-6827

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35765/hp.2925

Section: Articles Varia

Deplatforming Donalda Trumpa – przyczyny oraz implikacje prawne i związane z komunikacją polityczną

Abstract

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The article examines the political and communication context of the January 2021 deplatforming of Donald Trump and some of his supporters by major social media platforms. It aims to clarify why the platforms acted, what precedents and pressures shaped their decisions, and how the blocks affected political communication and public debate.

RESEARCH PROBLEM: Firstly, the study asks whether, and on what legal or regulatory grounds, private platforms can restrict or remove the accounts of high-profile political actors. Secondly, how platforms justify such actions in relation to safety, misinformation, and incitement and thirdly, what immediate and longer-term consequences deplatforming produces for political discourse, mobilisation, and media ecosystems.

REASONING PROCESS: To address these questions, the article reconstructs the sequence of events leading up to the bans (including escalating online rhetoric and offline political developments) and analyses platform statements, moderation policies, and relevant legal debates. It then evaluates communication consequences by tracking changes in message reach, audience migration, and the reconfiguration of information flows after the bans.

RESULTS OF THE ANALYSIS: The analysis indicates that major platforms framed their decisions as responses to real-world risk and policy violations, while critics interpreted them as overreach by powerful private intermediaries. Deplatforming reduced Trump’s visibility on mainstream channels and limited rapid amplification, but it also accelerated migration toward alternative and more niche platforms, contributing to fragmentation and the creation of parallel publics.

CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS: The article concludes that deplatforming can meaningfully reshape political communication, yet it raises unresolved tensions between corporate governance, democratic accountability, and freedom of expression. It recommends clearer, more transparent moderation standards, due-process-like safeguards (notice, explanation, appeal), and ongoing public discussion about the role of dominant platforms in setting the boundaries of permissible political speech.

Keywords

deplatforming ; Big Tech ; social media ; Twitter ; Donald Trump

Details

References

Indicators

Authors

Download files

PDF (Język Polski)

Zasady cytowania

Altmetric indicators

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a CC BY-ND licence that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are asked to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). We advise to use any of the following reserach society portals:

References

Ali, S., Hammas Saeed, M., Aldreabi, E., Blackburn, J., De Cristofa-ro, E., Zannetou, S., & Stringhini, G. (2021). Understanding the Effect of Deplatforming on Social Networks. WebSci’21: Procee-dings of the 13th ACMWeb Science Conference 2021, Research Paper, 187–195.

Bambauer, D.E. (2015). Against Jawboning. Minnesota Law Review, 100, 51–128.

Baughman, D., & Cali, D.D. (2017). Trump as Troll: Personae and Persuasive Inoculation in the 2016 Presidential Campaign. W R.E. Denton Jr (Red.), The 2016 Presidential Campaign. Political Commu-nication and Practice (s. 153–177). New York: Palgrave.

Beckett, L. (2020). Armed protesters demonstrate against Covid-19 lockdown at Michigan capitol. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/30/michigan-protests-coronavirus-lockdown-armed-capitol (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Beggin, R. (2020). Trump thanks the „great pople” in a video featu-ring a supporter yelling „white power”. The VOX. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/6/28/21306003/trump-tweets-deletes-video-supporter-white-power (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Brooks, K.J. (2021). Snapchat permanently bans Trump from its platform. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/snapchat-trump-ban/ (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Buntain, C., Innes, M., Mitts, T., & Sapiro, J. (2023). Cross-Platform Reactions to the Post-January 6 Deplatforming. Journal of Quanti-tative Description: Digital Media, 3, 1–44.

Chadwick, A. (2013). The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. New York: Oxford University Press.

Challacombe D.J., & Patrick C.L. (2023). The January 6th Insurection at the U.S. Capitol. What the TRAP-18 Can Tell Us About the Par-ticipants. Journal of Threat Assessment and Management, 10(3), 220–228.

Chandrasekharan, E., Pavalanathan, U., Srivasan, A., Glynn, A., isenstein, J., & Gilbert, E. (2017). You Cant’t Stay Here: The Effi-cacy of Reddit’s 2015 Ban Examined Through Hate Speech. Pro-ceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 1, 1–22.

Chipidza, W., & Yan, J. (2022). The effectiveness of flagging content belonging to prominent individuals: The case of Donald Trump on Twitter. Journal of the Association for Information Science and technology, 73(11), 1641–1658.

Committee on House Administration (2025). The Committee on the House Administration’s January 6 Investigative Activities in the 118th Congress. https://democrats-cha.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-cha.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2025_01_06_January_6_Report_CHA.pdf (dostęp: 22.04.2025).

Diegel, T. (2025) The State Action Doctrine in the Era of Social Me-dia. Akron Law Review, 57(1), 83–117.

First Amendment – Freedom of Speech – State Action – Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck (2019). Harvard Law Review, 133(1), 282–291.

Gribakov Jaffe, A. (2019). Digital Shopping Malls and State Consti-tutions – A New Font of Free Speech Rights? Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, 33(1), 269–291.

Igielnik, R., Keeter, S., & Hartig, H. (2021). Behind Biden’s Victory. An Examination of the 2020 electorate, based on validated voters. Pew Research Center Report. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/30/behind-bidens-2020-victory (dostęp: 20.04.2025).

Jones, J. (2021). Last Trump Job Approval 34%; Average Is Record-Low 41%. Gallup. https://news.gallup.com/poll/328637/last-trump-job-approval-average-record-low.aspx (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Laidler, P. (2007). Konstytucja Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki. Prze-wodnik. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.

Leading Cases: First Amendment – Public Forum Doctrine – Packin-gham v. North Carolina (2017). Harvard Law Review, 131(233).

Opinia w sprawie O’Handley v. Weber & Twitter (2023). https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2023/03/10/22-15071.pdf.

Oświecimski, K. (2021). Twitter jako narzędzie komunikacyjne Do-nalda Trumpa podczas kampanii 2016 roku. Horyzonty Polityki, 12(41), 177–193.

Papakyriakopoulos, O. (2022). The Impact of Twitter Labels n Misin-formation Spread and User Engagement: Lessons from Trum’s Election Tweets. WWW ’22: The ACM Web Conference 2022 Confe-rence Paper.

Pape, R.A., Larson, K.D., & Ruby, K.G. (2024).The Political Geogra-phy of the January 6 Insurectionists. Political Science and Politics, 57(3), 329–339.

Paul, K. (2021). Twitter and Facebok lock Donald Trump’s accounts after video address. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/facebook-twitter-youtube-trump-video-supporters-capitol (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Peters, J. (2021). Google pulls Parler from Play Store for fostering calls to violence. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/8/22221648/google-suspends-bans-parler-play-store (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Peters, J., & Lyons K. (2021). Apple removes Parler from the App Stor. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/9/22221730/apple-removes-suspends-bans-parler-app-store (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Pruneyard Shopping Center i in. v. Robins i in. (1979). Appeal from the Supreme Court of California. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep447/usrep447074/usrep447074.pdf

Putnam, R. (2019). Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, 139 S. Ct. 1921. Ohio Northern University Law Review, 46(1), 195–208.

Sanderson, Z., Brown, M.A., Bonneeau, R., Nagler, J., & Tucker, J.A. (2021). Twitter flagged Donald Trump’s tweets with election mi-sinformation: They continued to spread both on and off the plat-form. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 2(4).

Sitaraman, G. (2023). Deplatforming, The Yale Law Journal, 133, 497–567.

Slickle, G. (2023) For Freedom or Full of It? State Attempts to Silence Social Media Speech University of Miami Law Review, 78(1), 297–346.

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 9 marca) (a). So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages betwe-en 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that! [Post na Twitte-rze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1237027356314869761 (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 23 marca) (b). WE CAN-NOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO! [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1241935285916782593 (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 6 lipca) (c). SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!! [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1280209946085339136 (dostęp: 15.04.2025)

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 17 kwietnia) (d). LIBERATE MICHIGAN! [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1251169217531056130 (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 31 maja) (e). The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Or-ganization. [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1267129644228247552 (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 29 lipca) (f). A couple po-inted guns at protesters in St. Louis as a group marched toward the mayor’s home to demand her resignation. [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/ABC/status/1277526031935647744 (dostęp: 16.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 29 maja) (g). ....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way…[Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1266231100780744704 (dostęp: 16.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 26 maja) (h). There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than sub-stantially fraudulent… [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265255835124539392 (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 3 lipca) (i). MAIL-IN VO-TING WILL LEAD TO MASSIVE FRAUD AND ABUSE… [Post na Twitterze]. Twit-ter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1278836342609379328 (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 23 sierpnia) (j). So now the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster. Among other things, they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times… [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1297495295266357248 (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 12 września) (k). NORTH CAROLINA: To make sure your Ballot COUNTS, sign & send it in EARLY. When Polls open, go to your Polling Place to see if it was COUNTED. IF NOT, VOTE! Your signed Ballot will not count be-cause your vote has been posted… [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1304769412759724033 (Dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 4 listopada) (l). We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed! [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1323864823680126977 (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 4 listopada) (m). They are working hard to make up 500,000 vote advantage in Pennsylva-nia disappear — ASAP. Likewise, Michigan and others! [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1324033983882166272 (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 15 listopada) (n). All of the mechanical “glitches” that took place on Election Night were re-ally THEM getting caught trying to steal votes. They succeeded plenty, however, without getting caught. Mail-in elections are a sick joke! [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1327958640309972992 (Dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 15 listopada) (o). He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OB-SERVERS allowed…[Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1327956491056279552 (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 4 listopada) (p). STOP THE FRAUD! [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1324401527663058944 (dostęp: 15.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2020, 19 grudnia) (r). Peter Na-varro releases 36-page report alleging election fraud ‘more than sufficient’ to swing victory to Trump https://t.co/D8KrMHnFdK . A great report by Peter. Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild! [Post na Twitterze]. Obecnie niedostępne na Twitterze. Do-stępne na stronie archiwizującej: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/tweets-december-19-2020 (dostęp: 16.04.2025).

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump]. (2021, 6 stycznia) (s). These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide elec-tion victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever! [Post na Twitterze]. Obecnie niedostępne na Twitterze. Dostępne na stronie archiwizującej: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/tweets-january-6-2021 (dostęp: 16.04.2025).

Twitter (Company) (2021). Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump. Oświadczenie Twittera. https://blog.x.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension (do-stęp: 17.04.2025).

Volokh, E. (2024) The Future of Government Pressure on Social Me-dia Platforms. Journal of Free Speech Law, 3(197), 403–422.

Volpicelli, G.M. (2021). Trump’s mob is on Telegram and they’re already getting organised. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/trump-telegram/ (dostęp: 17.04.2025).

Wlezien, C., & Morris, G.E. (2017). Dynamics of National Electoral Preferences during the 2016 US Presidential Race. W A. Cavari, R.J. Powell, & K.R. Mayer (Red.), The 2016 Presidential Election. The Causes and Consequances of a Political Earthquake (s. 117–136). London: Lexington Books.

YouTube (Company) [@UpdatesFromYT] (2021, 13 stycznia). / After review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J. Trump’s channel for violating our policies… [Post na Twitterze]. Twitter. https://x.com/UpdatesFromYT/status/1349205688694812672 (do-stęp: 16.04.2025).

Zuckerberg, M. (2021, 7 stycznia). The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden. [Post na Facebooku]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10112681480907401ref=embed_post (dostęp: 16.04.2025).

Total abstract views : 97

PDF Downloads : 52