The footprint of campaign strategies in Farsi Twitter: A case for 2021 Iranian presidential election

Abstract

The rise of social media accompanied by the Covid-19 Pandemic has instigated a shift in paradigm in the presidential campaigns in Iran from the real world to social media. Unlike previous presidential elections, there was a decrease in physical events and advertisements for the candidates; in turn, the online presence of presidential candidates is significantly increased. Farsi Twitter played a specific role in this matter, as it became the platform for creating political content. In this study, we found traces of organizational activities in Farsi Twitter, and our investigations reveal that the discussion network of the 2021 election is heterogeneous and highly polarized. However, unlike many other documented election cases in Iran and around the globe, communities of candidates’ supporters are very close in one pole, and the other pole is for “Anti-voters” who endorse boycotting the election. With almost no reciprocal ties, these two poles form two echo chambers, one favoring the election and the other for voter suppression. Furthermore, a high presence of bot activity is observed among the most influential users in all of the involved communities.