Climate Polarization on Czech Social Media After Trump’s Announcement to Withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement

Donald Trump’s announcement on 1 June 2017 to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement triggered public debate, potentially revealing patterns of climate change polarization. Political polarization refers to differences in opinions and political beliefs and it has been extensively studied on social media, but remains less explored in response to specific events. We study the Czech Twitter debate to demonstrate the event’s impact on the interaction patterns of partisan, elite (policy-shaping actors outside social media), and non-elite (public) users. The event increased opinion divergence between ideological supporters and opponents, thus increasing polarization. Typically, belief homophily, interacting with like-minded users, accompanies polarization; here, it didn’t increase due to expanded debate and resulting heterophilous interactions. Non-elite users drove polarization, likely following elite cues since elite users were extremely polarized already before the event. The event revealed a bipolar interaction pattern emerging afterward, likely indicating a latent coalition structure.