How Influencers and Multipliers Drive Polarization and Issue Alignment on Twitter/X

2025-05-20

AI Summary

This study investigates the mechanisms of opinion polarization and stance alignment on Twitter/X in Germany. Addressing the gap in understanding how platform-specific dynamics shape ideological clustering, we analyze trending topic data from 2021–2023 using a multilayer network approach: constructing retweet networks, integrating topic modeling, stance classification, and community detection. Crucially, we distinguish two functionally distinct actor types—“influencers” (original content producers) and “amplifiers” (ideologically motivated retweet intermediaries)—a novel typology grounded in structural and behavioral roles. Results reveal cross-topic stance alignment—not fragmentation—across political issues; a rigid left-right bipolar structure; and the central role of “amplifiers” as platform-embedded structural nodes that reinforce echo chambers via selective retweeting, thereby driving polarization escalation. This work advances the theoretical and empirical understanding of algorithm-mediated polarization by introducing a role-based analytical framework and providing robust evidence from a major European social media context.

Technology Category

• Natural Language Processing: Sentiment Analysis, Stylistic Analysis, and Argument Mining
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Graph Mining, Social Network Analysis & Community

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Media and governance, opinion dynamics, filter bubbles, polarization
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Sentiment analysis and opinion mining
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web

Abstract

We investigate the polarization of the German Twittersphere by extracting the main issues discussed and the signaled opinions of users towards those issues based on (re)tweets concerning trending topics. The dataset covers daily trending topics from March 2021 to July 2023. At the opinion level, we show that the online public sphere is largely divided into two camps, one consisting mainly of left-leaning, and another of right-leaning accounts. Further we observe that political issues are strongly aligned, contrary to what one may expect from surveys. This alignment is driven by two cores of strongly active users: influencers, who generate ideologically charged content, and multipliers, who facilitate the spread of this content. The latter are specific to social media and play a crucial role as intermediaries on the platform by curating and amplifying very specific types of content that match their ideological position, resulting in the overall observation of a strongly polarized public sphere. These results contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms that shape online public opinion, and have implications for the regulation of platforms.

Problem

• Analyzing polarization in German Twittersphere via trending topics
• Identifying influencers and multipliers driving ideological content spread
• Understanding mechanisms shaping online public opinion and platform regulation

Innovation

• Extracted issues and opinions from trending tweets
• Identified left and right-leaning user camps
• Analyzed influencers and multipliers driving polarization