The Iran protests

From my MIS Asia blog:

If the Iraq war was about blogging (remember the Baghdad blogger?), the ongoing post-election protests in Iran are about Twitter.

If this is the moment of democracy, then this is also the moment of Twitter.

In the Teheran demonstrations against the contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Twitter has emerged as the tool to voice civil unrest. Iranian youth have been relaying their anguish through this popular micro-blogging site.

Twitter has become the opposition’s (led by Mir Hussein Moussavi, the moderate reform candidate who contends that the 12 June election was stolen from him) major tool for organising and sharing information with Iranians and the outside world.

“Some ask if the impact of technology (on the Iranian situation) is exaggerated,” writes Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal (22 June 2009). “No. Twittering and Youtubing made the story take hold and take off. But did the technology create the rebellion? No, it encouraged what was there…”

So, there you are.

More

Unverified video

NYT today notes: A video posted on several Web sites that showed a young woman, called Neda, her face covered in blood. Text posted with the video said she had been shot. It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the video.

Reminds me of many earlier unverified but viral videos. Remember the video featuring flogging of a woman in Swat Valley in Pakistan? The woman in question later denied it. Or before the Iraq attack, remember the fake video of a diplomat's daughter in Kuwait who alleged about the atrocities committed by Iraqi soldiers? Why should we accept everything blindly?

BBC Caught In Mass Public Deception With Iran Propaganda

(Also here)