Hi Amir, Negar Morazavi and Farnaz Fassihi are fully aware of what is taking place in Iran, currently and historically. My expertise is specific to the manipulation of social media platforms vs. geopolitics/policy.

I would encourage you to re-read my post, as it seems you completely missed the point. I do not state that all of Kaveh’s new followers are bots; rather, they are “a mix of bots (i.e. automated accounts) and sockpuppets/personas that violate various Twitter Rules (inflating followers count, coordinated artificial amplification & abusive behavior, among others).” I delve into the specific Twitter Rules being violated while going out of my way to state that “Using automation/bots in and of itself is not a violation of Twitter Rules.”

If you believe the accounts tweeting 500+ times per day are doing so in such a fashion that does not violate Twitter Rules.. well, then I have a bridge to sell you! Look at this one (https://twitter.com/nahang_daria), for example, which has tweeted 48 thousand times in 35 days (since it was created).

re: Kaveh’s efforts in mobilizing protestors, good on him – I agree the Iranian regime has been repressive. The world should see these protests, indeed. This does not mean, however, that Kaveh should be given free rein to engage in platform manipulation to amplify visibility into the protests, nor for him to brigade Twitter users that hold different ideologies from his own, disrupting their Twitter experience via his abusive attacks.

Seems Kaveh is wasting his Harvard education, opting to spend all day, every day harassing Iranian-American women journalists. It’s pathetic, frankly.