Vox Civitatis the New Colonist weblog
06/16/2009: "The World Without Twitter"
The world without Twitter must have been a terrible place. No, I don't remember it as so terrible, but like telephones and computers, it's one of those things you didn't know you needed until you had it. I think the last two days have proven that Twitter is good for more than sharing recipes and the status of a flight. Twitter is good for Democracy, perhaps to an extent on par with newspapers. In fact, Twitter is free-press on steriods because there's no way to stop this army of citizen journalists. In just the few moments it took to write that first paragraph, 226 more entries have shown up baring the hashtag of #Iranelection on Twitter. Now it's up to 257. Iran may have been able to block CNN, Fox News and text messages, but they've been unable to keep the tweets from getting through. In the time it takes cable news networks to update their status, hundreds, even thousands of tweets are sent from inside and outside Iran.
Of course efforts are being made to block Twitter too, but users continually send ip addresses to go around the blockade. Moreover users inside Iran are changing their Twitter locations to U.S. cities like Houston, confounding Iranian authorities. Outside twitterers are changing their profiles to show Tehran locals.
At this point the number of new tweets with that hashtag is 519. Among them alauria says "CNN is televising Iranian Twitter IDs. They are risking lives for ratings." Chandlerhora says "All press passes have been revoked in Iran, foreign media banned and not allowed to leave offices to cover events." Running says "CONFIRMED!!! Army moving into Tehran against protesters! PLEASE RT! URGENT!"
Think Twitter is not important? Last night one Tweet told the story best. Rosana said "One Person = One Broadcaster" It's the Twitter users who are telling the story, leaving the networks out of the loop on the ground in Iran, reporting only the story of the Twitter revolution.