You Can’t Stop the Signal, Mal
I'm just amazed at the unity and the fight for what's right in Iran and Twitter right now. People all over the world are banding together to get the truth out while Iran's recently and questionably elected government tries to clamp down on information getting out of the country. Tweeters are changing their time zones to Iran's to confuse Iran's Intelligence agents and to hide those who continue to get the word out about the wrong that is being done to them in the country.
Today, we see an end of an era of modern day news reporting as news agencies such as CNN were prohibited or too slow reporting on the situation in Iran. This means that the latest up-to-date news on the situation is from Twitter and its Iranian users hiding and getting the word out. So much for freedom of the press and freedom of information. But hey, we can be our own broadcasters! Even the US State Department demanded that a scheduled maintenance on Twitter that would have brought it down for hours be postponed because Twitter has become such a crucial outlet for live information to them.
Looking through images posted under #iranelection, university dorms are being raided and destroyed (So much for safe higher education...). People are getting shot and human rights activists arrested. Reporters are getting kicked out of the country. Democracy itself has fallen as people were robbed of their votes by an oppressive regime. I just pray we do not see another Tiananmen.
"My death is irrelevant. What's important is that you not forget my words. We want freedom. I will die for that."
It's scary how that may have been someone's last words...
Some more notable tweets:
"I've learned something today. Americans DO care about the world outside America. Their media just doesn't."
"We are all Iranian now."
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -Gandhi
If you're a Twitterer, do NOT post the person's name when you retweet. And make sure your source is real and not counter-Tweeters spreading misinformation. There's a lot of 1984 going on.
What happens there matters because the climate for dialogue between Iran and the Western world (US and well, us) will never improve if the government in power does not represent the views of its citizens. And it's unknown if Iran will continue to seek nuclear weapons. If they do, it could spark an arms race in the Middle East.
