Physics Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
Center for Complex Networks and Social Data Science, Tehran, Iran.
PLoS One. 2022 Jul 28;17(7):e0270822. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270822. eCollection 2022.
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.
社交媒体的兴起伴随着新冠疫情，促使伊朗总统竞选活动的范式从现实世界转移到了社交媒体上。与以往的总统选举不同，候选人的实体活动和广告有所减少；相反，总统候选人的在线存在感显著增加。在这个问题上，波斯语版的 Twitter 发挥了特定的作用，因为它成为了制作政治内容的平台。在这项研究中，我们在波斯语版的 Twitter 上发现了有组织活动的痕迹，我们的调查显示，2021 年选举的讨论网络是异构的，高度两极分化的。然而，与伊朗和全球其他许多有记录的选举案例不同，候选人支持者的社区在一个极点非常接近，另一个极点是支持抵制选举的“反选民”。这两个极点几乎没有相互联系，形成了两个回音室，一个支持选举，另一个则支持选民压制。此外，在所有涉及的社区中，最有影响力的用户中都存在大量的机器人活动。
