The Footprint of Campaign Strategies in Farsi Twitter: A case for 2021 Iranian presidential election

TL;DR

This study analyzes Farsi Twitter's role in the 2021 Iranian presidential election, revealing organizational activity, polarization, close supporter networks, and significant bot presence influencing online political discourse.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of social media campaign strategies, network polarization, and bot activity specific to the 2021 Iranian presidential election.

Findings

Heterogeneous and highly polarized discussion network.

Close-knit supporter groups and anti-voter communities.

High bot activity among influential users.

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. Our investigations reveals that the discussion network of the 2021 election is heterogeneous and highly polarized. However, unlike other elections, candidates' supporters are very close, and "Anti-voters" who endorse boycotting the election is at the discussions opposite end. Furthermore, high presence of the bot activity is observed among the most influential users in all of the involved communities.