JUNE 16, 2009

Iranian’s Election And The Social Media Aftermath

The recent presidential election in Iran, held last Friday, has sparked a flurry of protests opposing the proclaimed victor, incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  The protests started as early as Saturday morning after the election, and have gotten increasingly more violent. Most disturbing, however, has been the Iranian government’s clampdown on, and censorship of, the opposition voices raising concerns about voting irregularity and the validity of the election’s outcome.

The Iranian government, however, is no match for the power of social media. From The Nation’s blog The Notion: “I’m not sure what the Iranian regime expected when they fixed the election, but the outpouring of texts, tweets and video from Tehran has sparked a worldwide solidarity movement. ”

From The Baltimore Sun’s Second Opinion blog:

They’re using Facebook to organize marches, they’re posting videos on YouTube to show the world the violence used to quell the demonstrations, and the discussion is so active on Twitter that you can find more than 1,500 messages detailing the actions and reactions from around the globe. Huffington Post has a live blogger who updates his reports on a nearly minute-by-minute basis.

For anyone who dismisses Twitter and Facebook as fads or frivolous, there is no denying their power in getting information out quickly, and, if necessary, anonomously, to an international audience that transcends borders and the reach of government censorship. Whatever the outcome of the protests, those using social media networks and tools to express their anger at the elections have gotten attention around the world - something that would likely have been close to impossible even five years ago.