Iran vs. The Internet

If you've had the news on recently, you've no doubt seen the ongoing political unrest in Iran. This past weekend, they held elections. Elections in Iran are a tricky thing. So tricky, that in my research to figure out who the major players were, I came across this chart from the BBC:



(Click Here if you'd like to see the BBC interactive tools that go with this chart)

So, I guess it wasn't a big surprise when the government claimed that the candidate in power had won, and the opposition claimed their candidate had won. What happened next was another example of the power of the internet, and the way people co-opt tools for their use.

On Monday, there was a massive opposition rally in Iran. Organized by students using every tool available, streets were filled with people protesting the election, and a country who was used to having it's public problems filtered through a media curtain suddenly had them exposed for everyone to see.


The pictures and accounts were not being streamed through the normal media channels, the minute by minute details of what was taking place were coming through YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Authorities, unsure of where the information was coming from, restricted all journalists - including Iranians - from reporting on the streets. Some of the foreign journalists were forced to leave Iran because the visas they had been issued to cover the election were not extended.

The flow of information, however, didn't stop. The Iranian government worked to shut down as much internet and cell phone access as they could. People outside of Iran started using Twitter proxies to help allow people inside Iran get the stories and pictures out. And, as of this morning, the unrest continues and the pictures and videos keep coming out.

Twitter has been hammered in the press lately for being the ultimate in vanity - people really don't care what you're doing every minute of every day. But as I watched this unfold on Twitter late Sunday night, I thought Twitter had proved its value. 140 characters at a time.

To follow updates of the Iran Election on Twitter, do a search for #iranelection.