Twittering the Iran Street Protests
Fascinating/ horrifying stuff coming from the aftermath of Iran’s most recent elections, largely as a result of micro-blog posts, pictures and photographs being smuggled outside of Iran via Twitter. The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan has been covering the event in real time, posting tweets and videos. The raw, direct nature of this footage is fascinating, especially when you consider how it’s often only a few hours old.
Much is being made of the groundswell of action and protest stemming from Iran’s lyouth population. Thanks to the actions of an angry and engaged youth segment, we see a side of Iran that is far more secular and globally-oriented than is commonly understood. It seems to pervade the youth experience, right down to the street-level art protest.
Much will be made about the role of Twitter/ mobile phones/ You Tube/ Facebook as platforms for mobilizing these protests. Could this have happened without these technologies? I think Henry Farrell and Matt Yglesias get some things right in viewing the “Twitter made this possible” thesis with a more skeptical eye.
Still, it feels like something profoundly different is going on right now. It’s easy to criticize “Facebook participation” as some sort of easy, empty gesture. And yet? People in Iran appear to be gaining some comfort (and perhaps, motivation) in knowing that the world sees what they see. Communication is central to mobilizing protest.
No matter how this ends (and it may end poorly), it would be interesting to compare this to what little sneaked out during last year’s brutal crackdown in Burma. A few pictures snuck out, for a while there was some interest. But soon enough, Burma’s military leaders were able to choke information seeping out of the country. For some reason, Iran hasn’t been able to (or, perhaps has not chosen to) do the same.
*Updated: Twitter is the few fax machine: how Chinese students kept the world informed via fax.