A recent study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute provides a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms driving polarization and issue alignment on Twitter/X and reveals how political polarization in Germany is reinforced and structured by two distinct types of highly active users: influencers and multipliers. 

To the point:

·  Structural polarization: The study reveals significant structural polarization on Twitter/X, with users dividing into two distinct clusters across various political issues.

·  The hidden force: Multipliers play a central role in in shaping political divides. They curate ideologically coherent narratives and boost visibility through algorithmic engagement.

·  Power of retweets: Retweets reflect endorsement, revealing both ideological divides and how certain voices gain influence through digital support.

·  Issue-specific deviations: While most topics follow clear partisan lines, some show nuanced overlaps or unexpected cross-cluster endorsements, offering insight into the complexity of political alignment.

·  Relevance beyond social media: The findings have implications for our understanding of social media’s impact on public discourse and highlight the need for further research into the mechanisms driving polarization, as well as the potential for similar patterns on other social media platforms.

The work is based on a large-scale analysis of over 19 million tweets covering daily trending topics in Germany between 2021 and 2023. The results show a strikingly clear structural division of the German Twittersphere into two ideological camps — one predominantly left-liberal, the other right-conservative. While polarization is not a novel finding in social media research, the authors could identify strong issue alignment across diverse political topics. This means that users consistently position themselves in the same ideological cluster across different issues such as climate change, Covid-19, energy, migration, or media trust. This cross-issue alignment contrasts with previous survey-based research, which typically finds only weak or issue-specific polarization in public opinion.

Key Actors: Influencers and Multipliers
At the center of this alignment phenomenon are two types of highly active users: influencers, who generate widely shared, ideologically charged content, and multipliers, who primarily act as curators by retweeting content that matches their ideological stance. While influencers resemble traditional opinion leaders such as politicians or media figures, multipliers are less visible yet arguably more influential in shaping the structure of online discourse. The analysis shows that multipliers play a decisive role since their intensive retweet behavior amplifies and bundles ideologically consistent content, thereby facilitating polarized and aligned opinion clusters.