The Iranian government may be imposing over zealous sanctions on the foreign press to try and stop them from reporting the grim reality of life in Tehran but much to their chagrin it isn’t stemming the flow of information. While reporters in the country are effectively chained to their desk, away from all the action the people of Iran have taken up the mantle of the fourth estate and are twittering what they here and see while on the streets.
Every death is documented, every disappearance noted and every breach of human rights passed on to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people across the world by a handful of individuals. They do so knowing they’re being sought after by the government, they’ve received phone calls telling them as much, and they know if they are caught then they’ll probably never be seen again.
Their impact is so big that the illegitimate Iranian government are doing everything in their power to spread misinformation, whether that be through state TV or their own Twitter accounts. Needless to say it’s not working as they’d hoped and people are sticking with the names they know when it comes to Retweeting important info.
The strength of feeling outside Iran is helping the impromptu journalists too, with two sessions of apparently essential maintenance by Twitter being postponed, the latest at the request of the US State Department.
The word history may seem a bit strong but when has a revolution ever been conducted by social media? It’s arguable that if it wasn’t for the use of Twitter the protests would’ve been more bloody and suppressed in the most brutal way possible but the world is watching.
Who knew 140 characters could drag a regime to the brink?
Wednesday 17 June 2009
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