Ideological congruence in the digital public sphere: linking corporate political donations to online audience composition on X (Twitter)

Abstract In an era of deepening political polarization, corporate political activism has emerged as a critical nexus of consumer-brand interaction. This study investigates the alignment between U.S. corporations’ offline political donations and the ideological composition of their online audiences on the X (formerly Twitter) platform. While existing research often relies on surveys, extensive empirical evidence from real-world social media remains limited. To address this gap, this research employs a novel computational approach, analyzing a large-scale X dataset to construct a political retweet network. Audience ideology is inferred using a validated community detection method. The analysis finds a robust association between the partisan direction of corporate donations and the ideological makeup of their X audience, a relationship that persists after controlling for firm-level factors. Furthermore, ideological misalignment is associated with a meaningful increase in negative online engagement. This study provides evidence consistent with social identity theory in consumer-brand dynamics and demonstrates the utility of computational methods for linking offline political actions to online social structures, offering crucial insights for navigating reputational risk in a polarized digital landscape.