Iranian Tweets

In Iran, the revolution is not being televised, but it is being tweeted. While the state has effectively shutdown phones,  internet, and owns the media, it seems that regular folks are able to document the ongoing protests in 140 characters or less.

It’s easy to mock the twitter platform as being a narcissistic toy, but the simplicity and lightweight nature of the thing is allowing it to be a powerful tool in media, and in this case political outrage.

Update: A peice from the NYTimes –

As each new home for this material becomes a new target for censorship, he said, a repressive system faces a game of whack-a-mole in blocking Internet address after Internet address carrying the subversive material.

“It is easy for Twitter feeds to be echoed everywhere else in the world,” he said. “The qualities that make Twitter seem and inane and half-baked are what makes it so powerful.”

Also, it’s pretty cool to see that Twitter seems to recognize it’s importance in these events.