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Social Media and the Election in Iran

From Scott Stadum.


From the Flickr "Election" photoset by Shahram Sharif The results from last Friday's Iranian election have sparked massive protests in the streets of Tehran and other cities throughout the country, despite the government's best efforts to disable SMS and cell phone signals and block websites like Facebook and Twitter.

Tweets, videos, blog entries and other media are making their way out of Iran due in part to the efforts of global citizens setting up proxy servers that are allowing people on the ground to bypass the government's censorship.

One of the real media stars in the coverage of the protests is Twitter, showing once again that social media has incredible potential for not only reporting the news but directly shaping world politics. Tweets were pouring in about the street protests long before CNN and other mainstream news outlets picked up on the development.

Regardless of your position on the election, it's clear that independent media is vital for allowing citizens to speak truth to power.

For further coverage of the protests in Iran, check out #IranElection on Twitter search, as well as Twazzup and the Huffington Post.

Editor's Note, 3:00 p.m. EST: Andrew Sullivan's blog is also chock-full of information.