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 empl