Un articolo di Knight Foundation riporta la composizione dello spettro politico di Twitter, spiegando come questa fornisca un’immagine distorta della situazione politica americana.

The political spectrum on Twitter skews heavily center left, particularly for trending issues. While some might be tempted to believe that Twitter is a generally accurate representation of American politics, ideology scoring analysis reveals that over half (57%) of Twitter users fall into the center left segment and an additional 10% are in the extreme left category.
The center right is hollowed out, dwarfed by the extreme right. While the center left is the largest segment, the center right is the smallest, accounting for only 8% of users. At 25%, the extreme right is three times its size and the second largest segment on Twitter. This means that Twitter’s conservative representation is dominated by the far right.

The center left is the most vocal segment discussing current political news. Among trending news issues, the center-left segment is even more engaged than other segments, so its views are over-represented in relation to its already large size. This means that most Twitter users, even those with a relatively diverse following, are likely seeing a left-skewed version of politics.

Questa polarizzazione sarebbe inoltre accentuata dal fatto che la stragrande maggioranza dei tweets a sfondo politico viene pubblicata da una piccola percentuale di accounts e dall’effetto “echo chamber” della piattaforma.

97% of tweets from U.S. adults regarding national politics came from only 10% of users in a yearlong analysis conducted by the Pew Research Center.
Those with intense opinions on President Trump — especially those who strongly disapprove of him — are “among the most prolific political tweeters,” Pew notes.
The platform is also susceptible to an echo chamber effect. 37% of Twitter users say they follow a mix of political views, but a quarter follow mostly users that match their views. Only 4% say they mostly follow users with different political views.

Immagine da Pete Simon – Flickr.