The Revolution will not be Tweeted

There are so many postings, links, and updates about the Iran elections circulating around the popular social networking, blogging, and sites like facebook and twitter that include ‘microblogging’. While mainstream news sources such as CNN hailed the online media as hosting a “twitter revolution,” some tech experts reminded us that twitter was not at the center of these events because most Iranians don’t have access to twitter and the protesters inside Iran don’t actually rely on these technologies for organizing demonstrations as much as they do text messaging and word of mouth. 

On the other hand, among the young Iranian Americans I’ve been talking to, Facebook has been of massive importance in organizing gatherings, protests, and other events related to the elections and showing solidarity to those inside Iran. They have seen the spaces of their Facebook transform from domains for frivolous socializing into political spaces. I can completely relate to this experience looking at how my own Facebook news feed and profile postings have changed since the elections in June. 

I suppose Facebook is more potent here in the US for the networking and sharing aspects because Iranians here were already well-entrenched in widespread social networks on these very websites. Starting up an online social network in order to become more involved in the events after the fact doesn’t seem to be effective. Although some reported trying. But if the network is there already before the fact, it can become very easy to get caught up in the Facebook flow concerning the developments in Iran and the diaspora. Some have commented that even their Iranian American friends who previously had nothing to do with Iran are posting on Iran now. There is certainly a drive towards supporting the protesters/students/“sea of green”/green movement from all ends of the globe. It’s also been quite trendy to proclaim one's Iranian-ness, and it seems to be culminating in a particularly visible way online, as well as in offline events being organized all over the globe in support of Iranian democracy.

The fact that there was such demand for English translations of online articles and documents from Farsi to English during the post-election coverage was both a sign that Iranians were relying on the internet to get a message out and those outside were relying on it to stay informed. Bilingual readers took it upon themselves to translate and distribute material online. The up to date and detailed accounts written in English like the Huffigton Post’s and LA Times’ columns circulated widely, as did Andrew Sullivan’s blog.

The gaze of the Western public has been attracted towards Iran even more in these past weeks (and even some after MJ’s death!), and although Obama is still staying on the fence (or struggling to), we have all seen what a positive light the protesters have been shown in over here, and the effect of this Western audience through mainstream and new media outlets is no doubt having some effect. The English language “Where is my vote” placards held in Iran’s streets during protests are a pretty clear sign that the protesters are aware of this international Western audience, one of my respondents said, just as the steady stream of twitter updates in English (sometimes translated directly by other tweeters) about events inside Iran during the demonstrations also showed. He said, it appears the breadth of the transnationalisaiton of the Iranian movement is something relatively new if we make the commonly-made comparison to the revolution of ’79.

But this can't possibly just be because of Twitter and Facebook, right? I feel like it’s more likely that the public’s awareness has been raised because of the mainstream Western media (CNN obviously comes to mind) highlighting the plight of innocent protesters/voters. Several people I’ve spoken to have pointed out their concern that this image of Iranian people vs. oppressive government fits in with the image of Iran that have been promoted consistently by American news media in order to justify war with Iran on grounds of 'liberation.' Can't say it doesn't sound familiar. Suffice it to say, lots of people don't trust the 'twitter revolution.'