Exploring the disparity of influence between users in the discussion of Brexit on Twitter

The topic of political polarization has received increased attention for valid reasons. Given that an increased amount of the social exchange for opinions happens online, social media platforms provide a good source of information to investigate various aspects of the phenomena. In this work, data collected from Twitter are used to examine polarization surrounding the topic of the Brexit referendum on the membership of the European Union. The analysis specifically focuses on the question of how different tiers of users in terms of influence can project their opinions and if the polarized conditions affect the relative balance in the broadcast capabilities of the tiers. The results show that during polarization periods, users of the higher tier have increased capabilities to broadcast their information in relation to the lower tiers thereby further dominating the discussion. This validates previous modeling investigations and the hypothesis that polarization provides an opportunity for influencers to increase their relative social capital.