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Twitter Rules for Revolutionaries
By Neil Peterson | June 16, 2009
Nobody was counting on Twitter to aid the revolution. Following Iran’s highly contested election – in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the victor, “by a landslide”, the government quickly instituted a media blackout – jamming transmissions for many of the world’s leading news outlets and denying access to popular social networking sites including Facebook and YouTube. Iran’s youth generation has been an anomaly in the Middle East – maintaining a powerful internet presence in a region dominated by tight government control of the media. However no one could have predicted how the dramatic events of the past few days would reach us – in minute by minute updates.
Iran Election Story – BBC
Created in 2006, Twitter has exploded in popularity in the last several months, and is now reportedly the third most popular social network. Described as a micro-blog, with posts capping out at 140 characters, users can update their feed from computer or mobile phone and share that information with anyone who has chosen to follow their posts. Up to this point, it has proven itself similar to most other networking sites – connecting old friends, creating a space to make new friends, sharing web links, and giving celebrities the opportunity to expand their fan base without a publicist acting as intermediary.
Twitter has been used for disseminating news in the past – most notably during the Virginia Tech shootings and the 2007 California wild fires, and has proven reliable enough that the American Red Cross also uses the service in guiding relief efforts. But the situation in Iran has brought a new element into play – using the service to not only share information, but to give voice – and power – to a movement.
Beginning on June 14th, two days after the election, increasingly frantic reports from several Twitter users began leaking out of Iran – in spite of the government’s internet and media crackdown. Posts telling of violent military action, gunfire in the streets, missing persons, and a raid on a Tehran University dormitory were quickly ‘re-tweeted’ from user to user, with major news outlets confirming the events several hours later.
As supporters of candidate Mir-Houssein Mousavi gathered in the streets to march in protest, Twitter users around the world offered support in the form of ‘greening’ their profile photos, posting the addresses of proxy servers, and leveraging the power of their social networks to direct electronic attacks at government websites, causing several to fail. While many bloggers today have decried these actions as the work of ‘keyboard cowboys’, it is a strong and positive indication that people are paying attention – and that this election is no longer a national concern, but a global one.
Twitter has not only given voice to a population that feels it has been robbed of one, but has also reminded the major media of their responsibility in reporting the news efficiently and truthfully. Users bashed CNN for their lack of coverage by adding the tag #CNNfail – which allows posts to be easily searched, and raising the visibility of their misstep when it became one of the most popular topics on the site. Given the danger foreign correspondents have reported as they have met with government opposition to any filming or coverage of the ongoing unrest, the revolution may not be televised. But it will be twittered.
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