Notes: There are no NSFW links or photos on this blog. Please be aware of what you click on and what you read when you go outside of this blog and the links on it. Look for the words “graphic,” “18+” and “NSFW [Not Safe For Work]” when surfing the web.
In the most recent days, Twitter has shown itself to be one of the most powerful tools the world has for communicating and sharing ideas. Powerful enough, in fact to have the U.S. Department of Justice be rumored as asking @ev, @biz, and @twitter not to shut down for maintenance and gotten the oft-referenced and internet-empowered group Anonymous involved with their site http://iran.whyweprotest.net/
So what happened? Yesterday most were excited and believing this would be over soon – today an information war has started and it looks like few may be named victorious. Emsenn, a faceless website began racing to the forefront of twitter on Monday with aid from twitter posters sharing links about how to tweet and share information to, from, with, and for Iranian tweeps. Blogs appeared from everywhere with most people paying attention to very few of them in return.
This is an opportunity in some American minds to capitalize on the revolt in Iran and make some money on the side. Clothing companies have has been rumored to be giving away free green t-shirts while graphic and web designers on twitter are marketing their business by designing slick scripts to “green” a twitter profile photo.
During all of this – other side skirmishes have happened and been popularized as well – Jon Stewart fired at CNN, CNN fired at Twitter for #CNNFail, McCain fired at Obama, Obama smiled and killed flies, and there were even comments arguing about Iranian women and their attention to beauty while protesting.
But is this what “they” want? Has our attention to so very many details led us away from the large picture? This isn’t about forced scarves or the length of tunics. It isn’t about the Muslim religion. It isn’t about who is popular or whether Iran has oil. If it’s not about any of that, what is it about?
- What is so serious that the Iranian government would threaten any person contributing to a website which “damages Iran” with the penalty of death?
- What is so serious that Iran is accusing the U.S. Government of meddling in its affairs?
- What’s the painted picture telling us about prominent Reformists in Iran dissapearing from public eye?
- Why are hundreds of thousands of Iranians gathering in mourning vigils and marches?
- What is so serious as to have American Tweeters being attacked in their hometowns?
- Why are people vehemently reminding others not to post, say, broadcast, or tweet the names and screen names of Iranian people? For example, a tweet that was spread many times over:
#MSMfail Please continue to urge media outlets NOT to
share twitter names ppl’s safety is at risk!
http://emsenn.com/dnt.txt
One word: VOTE.
Though CNN has repeatedly failed in their practices and reports during this conflict, they have a great Timeline you can find here. Iranian protesters [called Supporters of The Opposition] are protesting the results of the most recent presidential election [the two favorites were incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and main opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi].
After the protest began, MMS and internet services virtually disappeared with most websites being blocked – except one: Twitter. When Iranian twitterers (tweople) found that Twitter was still open to them, they began tweeting in earnest to try and get word out to the rest of the world about the crisis. #Iran, #IranElection, #Iran9, #Gr88, #Tehran, #NoMaintenance and #Iranians hashtags were born, with #IranElection quickly surging to the forefront – topping out at over 200,000 tweets per hour at one point. Twitter has become (labeled by Time Magazine online) “The Medium of The Movement.” Even smallworld.tv (famed for “Alive in Baghdad” and “Alive in Mexico”) created and distributed “Alive in Tehran” both in audio and a transcript for viewers around the world.
there is so much more I want to say… so much more – but I do not have the space. To answer my original question, “It is really a war?” The answer is a resounding Yes. It is both and informational and physical war. Our thoughts and prayers are with Iranian, American, and Iranian-American people alike. Stay safe.
[...] Alan Grier, Tim Meadows, Lisa Lampanelli, Jimmy Fallon, Russell Peters, Louis CK, Jim Jefferies, Is it really a war? – reluctantgeisha.wordpress.com 06/18/2009 Notes: There are no NSFW links or photos on this blog [...]
Just wanted to add that through all of this, those who have actual sources within Iran are unable to confirm or deny ANY information: it’s all just as confusing there as it is anywhere else.
It is confusing – which is why we all need to take a breath and slow down when relaying news – especially on twitter.
I was just linked to this and want to say thank you for reminding people that although there is a massive amount of information coming out of Iran.
I would like to point out though, that this is not just a war on the streets of Iran. This is a global information war. So much disinformation is being spread, so many hacks are being executed from both sides. And, I know this isn’t really the right venue, but would like to remind everyone who wants to help of the risk involved. This *is* a war, and that means that when you help the Green Revolution, you are going against a government.
Here is what I still think is safe to do:
- send proxies to me@austinheap.com ph.on.twitter@gmail.com smallworldnews@gmail.com (in order of who does the best job spreading them)
- set up tor. see http://torir.org Send bridge info to ph.on.twitter@gmail.com
- RT information that YOU KNOW IS CONFIRMED. Please do not tweet things you aren’t sure are true. If it sounds odd, it probably is.
- Go to protests. Host protests. Encourage more media coverage.
(there are probably others but I can’t think of any. See http://iran.whyweprotest.net for more info on how to help)
Thank you so much for visiting my blog.
I’ve been following all of the Twitters via Huffingtonpost and Nico has been doing a phenomenal job organizing, verifying and getting information out there. One of the political blogs I read suggested as many people as possible switch their time zone to Tehran time, which I did earlier in the week. Don’t know how much that helps but I figured if it helped for a minute to allow the free flow of info out of Iran then what the hell.
It was thought that would confuse Iranian officials who were scouring twitter for Iranian posters talking about the protests. There is some doubt whether it does that or not but it’s also being done as a show of support and solidarity.
You have the space to say as much as you like; this is the Web. Continue.