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BeforeFacebook's dorm-room launch spreads across Ivy League campuses within weeks, teaching activists how authenticated real-name networks could map relationships, segment audiences, and mobilize volunteers faster than traditional email lists. Campaigns and advocacy groups quickly recognize that Facebook's data-rich social graph unlocks precise persuasion and fundraising experiments, prompting investments in campus digital teams and foreshadowing the platform's outsized role in U.S. political communication.

AfterThefacebook.com launches from a Harvard dorm room on 4 February 2004 and registers several hundred students within its first days, before expanding to other campuses over the following weeks. Its authenticated real-name directory establishes the model of a college social graph that later campaigns and advocacy groups would use for outreach and organizing, foreshadowing the platform's role in U.S. political communication.