Influencers in Polarized Political Networks on Twitter

This study aims to identify influencers roles in political conversations on Twitter and their effect in the online public sphere. We analyze data from three key days during the impeachment process of the ex-president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff. Using a combination of social network analysis and qualitative approaches, we discuss these political influencers and their role in the conversations that took place. Our main findings are: (1) the presence of highly modularized networks, where groups in favor or opposing the impeachment were tightly connected around different influencers; (2) the identification of three different types of influencers, the “opinion leaders”, the “informational influencers” and the “activists” and their different roles in the influential process and the polarization of the network.