Sunday, April 18, 2010
Twitter and Iran
I saw several videos dealing with the twitter revolution and the use of digital media to spread information from the Iranian elections and protests. I thought I'd post this one because it's shorter and to the point. It's interesting how far technology has gotten. A few years ago we wouldn't be seeing this steady supply of images coming through. One of the news clips I saw that also covered this story was from the Rachel Maddow Show. She said that we are 6,000 miles from Tehran, but we've "never been closer." If something happens in Iran, someone can just upload their cell phone video to the internet, and the world can be watching within minutes.
I think that twitter is an important power the Iranians have. If it wasn't for that, their opinions would probably not reach us, but they would have more difficulty talking to each other. I wouldn't be surprised if twitter could bring the people of Iran together and start a real revolution in the government. Technology like this has great potential to bring people together. Just think of the recent flash mobs in Philadelphia. It started out with just a few people on Facebook, then people started finding out about it through there, and suddenly you have a large group of people meeting up on the streets because they saw it on a social networking site.
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I'm surprised to hear that Iran doesn't block websites like Twitter and Facebook for longer than the period of time that the video suggested. It definitely has an impact on the society.
ReplyDeleteBefore I went to China in the fall for study abroad, the Chinese government put a large block on websites like Facebook, google, twitter, etc. My roommate in China even told me that when a controversial news segment about Muslim needle attacks in China came on CNN, there were sudden delays on the tv. He thought this was definitely the government trying to hide the news. If the Chinese can hide websites and news from 1 billion people, I am just wondering why this hasn't been a more prominent tactic of the Iranian government.
I am actually on Twitter and for people to hear what you are saying, you need to get followed. So people speaking out about the government won't be read by people other than the ones following you. I mean the government could see your page without following you but to get up dates its easier just to follow someone.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, i found it interesting how the Iranians used that British guy's website auto refresh thing to shut down Iran's government servers. If Iran was to do anything, they might as well block the entire internet usage so that no one other than the government can use it, but its just a thought.