The Revolution of Neda, Twitter, And Facebook

By Gilbert Mercier, News Junkie Post Editor.

Despite the Revolutionary Guards threats to crush further protests thousands of people gathered in Tehran. Our internet sources (via Twitter) from Iran describe a “tense situation and road blocks everywhere.”

More foreign journalists were asked to leave today. The reporting and flow of images will continue regardless, thanks to cell phones, and images sharing web site like Flickr.

Last night while I was trying to write updates, I was getting Twitter messages concerning the memorial for Neda and asked by my Iranian Twitter friends to spread the word.

After 9/11, the world wide feeling was that we were all New-Yorkers. The current events in Iran have a similar international impact, and at least on the social networks  & the blogs, we  feel an almost personal connection with Iranian protesters. People are changing the color of their avatars to green in an expression of solidarity. We are all Iranians at the moment. Due to the crack down on the big mainstream media by Iran authorities, we rely on the flow of images and the 140 characters messages provided by activists/reporters. It is both challenging and exhilarating to make some sense of it all.

Ahmadinejad thugs have made a martyr in the person of Neda, and they will regret it dearly.

Today, Mousavi asked for his supporters to keep protesting, but to avoid confrontation with the police and the Revolutionary Guards.

Meanwhile, the information war is raging on the web, especially on Twitter. In the last few days, I have received many messages to make me aware of Ahmadinejad’s effort to spy on the pro-Mousavi movement. On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Western technology, sold to Iran last year by Nokia & Siemens, is helping the Iranian authorities crunch data, on a massive scale, to monitor content of individual communication.

This is Neda’s page on Facebook.

gilbert@newsjunkie.com