The importance of Twitter: The Iranian elections

Social networking has its critics. Many people don’t seem to see past the futility of some user accounts, who appear to sign up just to impart 140 character tales of their lives at us: “Saw a wel fit boy 2day bt wen he lkd at me i tripd up LOL OMG”.

However, the Iranian elections have highlighted just how crucial Twitter is for journalism, mostly citizen. Reporters inside Tehran on the day of the results had to covertly film the protests and civil unrest that was unfolding on the streets of Iran’s capital city. Many were arrested and had their cameras and tapes confiscated by undercover police. They were restricted to reports from the backseat of a car, mobile phone footage from windows or telephone calls from the safety of their bedrooms.

The The Iranian authorities shut down websites like Facebook to prevent it being used by those in its borders to tell the outside world of the chaos that was ensuing.

However, Twitter was not closed. Disenfranchised Iranians flocked to use Twitter to shout about what was happening. Users such as stopahmadi and mohamadreza are giving a constant stream of insider updates on what’s happening. One user called tehranelection claims to be a student living in the city. He has given rather worrying insights into what may be happening inside Iran’s borders:

My uncle tells me that throughtout most cities Mahmoud Ahmadinejad people had ballot boxes burned.

My Father has a truck load of ballot boxes that were to be burned in the back of his truck.

The government has turned the power off in many locations claiming we need to fix some grid ??? Yeah, right!

Twitter has broken through press censorship in Iran. It’s allowing reports from citizens that would have been suppressed to be exposed to a wide audience. Obviously we have to be cautious in how we react to the information. We must never take everything as gospel and ensure that we aren’t being duped by someone manipulating anonymity. However, with the users claiming to be Iranian giving updates with consistent stories, we can perhaps assume that most of these people are offering legitimate and authentic views from Iran. On top of anecdotal stories we’re getting a stream of pictures and videos of scenes on the streets.

Twitter can be a powerful tool.

(For a list of some reformist Twitter users, please see this blog posting by Epiphanyblog)