Twittering Iran
So who's following the protests in Iran?
I think it's interesting that I haven't yet heard any sort of defense as to why the elections were not rigged. This graph of election results as they were announced shows that the vote totals were always proportional to each other, which is beyond unlikely in an unrigged election where results from different areas are being reported at different times. I can't see how anyone could defend this as a legitimate result, but no one's even trying. Nor has anyone explained how, in a country where ballots were handcounted, there was an official election result within hours after polls closed.
The SMS text messaging system was shut down before the election started, but people have still been managing to use texts and Twitter through alternate routes. A computer programmer friend of mine started helping set up and publicize proxies, only to have his site hacked and people on Twitter start claiming he's an imposter.
It's scary to think what could be happening there. This account by a Canadian reporter of being assaulted by police forces is one indication of how police have been dealing with non-violent protesters. It's encouraging that protests are still happening, but how long can a group of people continue to march the streets when they know the possibly repercussions? There are twitter reports that 150 students were arrested overnight in Tehran. Some students were arming themselves and holing up in residences because of police presence on campus earlier in the week (according to Twitter posts from some of the students involved).
What makes me worry about this new democractic method of news transmission is that it's ripe for mob mentality and panic. It's anonymous internet posters who seem legion - there's about 30 tweets every 10 seconds tagged with #IranElection at the moment. There's absolutely no way of gauging the accuracy and bias of these sources, and no way of getting confirmation from other sources due to limitations placed on foreign journalists and the sheer mass of information that is being pumped out. Some errant rumour, like a claim that Moussavi was assassinated, could lead to mob violence and it would be extremely easy for a small group of people to make the rumour credible.
I think it's interesting that I haven't yet heard any sort of defense as to why the elections were not rigged. This graph of election results as they were announced shows that the vote totals were always proportional to each other, which is beyond unlikely in an unrigged election where results from different areas are being reported at different times. I can't see how anyone could defend this as a legitimate result, but no one's even trying. Nor has anyone explained how, in a country where ballots were handcounted, there was an official election result within hours after polls closed.
The SMS text messaging system was shut down before the election started, but people have still been managing to use texts and Twitter through alternate routes. A computer programmer friend of mine started helping set up and publicize proxies, only to have his site hacked and people on Twitter start claiming he's an imposter.
It's scary to think what could be happening there. This account by a Canadian reporter of being assaulted by police forces is one indication of how police have been dealing with non-violent protesters. It's encouraging that protests are still happening, but how long can a group of people continue to march the streets when they know the possibly repercussions? There are twitter reports that 150 students were arrested overnight in Tehran. Some students were arming themselves and holing up in residences because of police presence on campus earlier in the week (according to Twitter posts from some of the students involved).
What makes me worry about this new democractic method of news transmission is that it's ripe for mob mentality and panic. It's anonymous internet posters who seem legion - there's about 30 tweets every 10 seconds tagged with #IranElection at the moment. There's absolutely no way of gauging the accuracy and bias of these sources, and no way of getting confirmation from other sources due to limitations placed on foreign journalists and the sheer mass of information that is being pumped out. Some errant rumour, like a claim that Moussavi was assassinated, could lead to mob violence and it would be extremely easy for a small group of people to make the rumour credible.