Politics and polarization on Bluesky (2506.03443v1)

Abstract: Online political discourse is increasingly shaped not by a few dominant platforms but by a fragmented ecosystem of social media spaces, each with its own user base, target audience, and algorithmic mediation of discussion. Such fragmentation may fundamentally change how polarization manifests online. In this study, we investigate the characteristics of political discourse and polarization on the emerging social media site Bluesky. We collect all activity on the platform between December 2024 and May 2025 to map out the platform's political topic landscape and detect distinct polarization patterns. Our comprehensive data collection allows us to employ a data-driven methodology for identifying political themes, classifying user stances, and measuring both structural and content-based polarization across key topics raised in English-language discussions. Our analysis reveals that approximately 13% of Bluesky posts engage with political content, with prominent topics including international conflicts, U.S. politics, and socio-technological debates. We find high levels of structural polarization across several salient political topics. However, the most polarized topics are also highly imbalanced in the numbers of users on opposing sides, with the smaller group consisting of only 1-2% of the users. While discussions in Bluesky echo familiar political narratives and polarization trends, the platform exhibits a more politically homogeneous user base than was typical prior to the current wave of platform fragmentation.