From Iran to Iraq, Kenya to Gaza, today’s inauguration of the 44th President of the United States will be watched on television by a global audience of millions.

Barack Obama’s inauguration will be the first to be captured, disseminated and shared over the global social media network of communities connected through services such as Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube.

Mobile phone operators have bolstered their communications networks in Washington DC, expecting the service to come under immense strain as the expected crowd of more than two million well-wishers – many young and tech-savvy, just the sort of demographic that loves social media – sends text messages to friends and family, uses their mobile phones to stay connected through platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and upload their images of the day to photo-sharing websites such as Flickr, and their videos to YouTube.