Social Networking Today Blog

This weekend, on Saturday 20^th June 2009, the people of Iran rose up in protest against a regime they believed had rigged the recent national election so denying  the people of their right to democracy.  Those on the streets organized and relayed real time videos, images and messages, documenting events in real time to the world, via social networking sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook . However, news reporters were banned from attending unauthorized gatherings and from moving around freely and were therefore unable to report on developments as first hand witnesses.  

As the afternoon progressed  #iranelection activity on Twitter became overwhelming, with supposedly first hand updates of clashes in multiple areas throughout the nation and warnings that hospitals had become police traps and that the injured should be taken to European embassies instead.  Most poignant, though, were the videos being uploaded to YouTube which appeared to provide graphic evidence of widespread unrest and deaths in various locations resulting from police brutality.  The most upsetting of these was a video documenting the fatal shooting of a 16 year old girl who had been standing beside her father. Reported to have been shouting, “freedom,” her name is said to be Neda which means, voice in Farsi. Into the night, as Twitter activity became feverish, Neda became the voice of the cause and the people’s movement symbol.

Unsurprisingly, early on Saturday the CNN and BBC news portals, unable to bear first hand witness to events, seemed to be reporting minor protests with little or no confrontation.  What seemed to be startling to those reading the Twitter feeds and watching the YouTube videos was the enormous gulf between the nature of events as reported by those on the ground via  social networking sites  compared to their nature as reported on the official TV News portals. In fact, on the BBC website developments in Iran had been delegated to the number three news story, signifying it had been rated as of lesser relative importance.

Nevertheless, as afternoon turned to evening CNN began to cover events as posted on Twitter and even to show some of the less graphic videos uploaded to sites such as YouTube. What is highly relevant here is that in all cases they stated and re-stated that the reports were unconfirmed and that their sources were journalistic amateurs uploading or posting to social networking sites.

By Sunday morning the Story rated as number one on CNN and almost all reporting was attributed to information gathered from social networking sites.  However, this was in stark contrast to events, as reported by the BBC, where the story still did not rate as number one and where the main web write up, in it’s opening sentence quoted sources from Iranian TV as reporting that ten people, described as being from terrorist groups, had been killed in Iran.  There was no mention at all of any information uploaded or posted on Twitter or YouTube or any other social networking site.  The article stated that, “Reports of Saturday’s violence cannot be verified as foreign media in Iran are being severely restricted,” and that, “Witness accounts on Saturday suggested police used live rounds, batons, tear gas and water cannon to break up demonstrations which went on late into the night.”

No doubt the BBC will defend it’s blanking of social networking sites by claiming them to be unreliable sources from which information cannot be validated.  Herein, though, lays the double standard. How have the BBC substantiated the validity of information taken from Iranian TV sources? Surely, if this information can be reported as having been gathered from a source other than the BBC, so then can that gathered from social networking portals. Surely news of the video of the dying 16 year old girl Neda, uploaded to YouTube, deserved to be transmitted to the world by its most trusted News portal. Surely the BBC needs to get to grips with new technology and take the public at their word, even if on occasion they get it wrong.  In my opinion, on this occasion, CNN got it right by covering itself, in the eventuality that the stories taken from social network portals could not later be substantiated.

Social Networking is not going away.  It enables the people to tell the story of what is taking place to the world and it makes that story ever more human.  It’s here to complement and enhance traditional reporting not to replace or threaten it. In times of extreme unrest and danger, when traditional journalism becomes impossible, do not the people have the right to tell the world their story?

Mahatma Gandhi said, “What you cannot do is accept injustice…You must make the injustice visible – be prepared to die like a soldier to do so.”  The brave people of Iran who took the YouTube videos on flimsy cell phones, and then risked their very lives uploading them in internet cafes took that very risk in order to call out to the world for help. Our much beloved BBC let them down.

Update 1 - by 4.30PM Sunday amateur videos being shown on BBC website but not on front page – still no prominent mention of social networking sites- There are now unsubstantiated reports that social networking sites are inaccessible in Tehran.

Update 2- 10PM Sunday 21 June - BBC broadcasts stills from Neda video on 10PM news - Allelujah - and thank you

Sandra Charan

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The people of Iran are flouting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's order not to protest today against the allegedly rigged election results and though the authorities have banned the media from reporting on unauthorized gatherings, reformers are relaying video evidence of the state's attempts to disperse protesters to the world through social networking sites such as YouTube. 

Follow these video links for evidence of real-time activity within the past hours on Tehran's steets and I'm sorry they are pretty upsetting: I show these not to shock but to shame the authorties into stopping this carnage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmmixxfKggk

http://bit.ly/N3lna

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FFdu_3qAew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu2oRuZiE2s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYYAeqdwFnQ

You can follow events as they occur by searching for Iran on YouTube and then selecting sorting by, "newest," in the top menu

The Twitter hashtag #iranelection brings up a message within the last 10 seconds as I read it STICK TOGETHER! RT From Iran: About 5000 Protesters pushing back Police, Bassij & Hezbollah to Azadi St #IranElection.

Sadly they know as well as we do what the result, for them personally will be. Here, lasty is a post by one of the youth of Tehran who expects he may die today in the name of the fight for freedom.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/before-the-battle.html

To show your support for the protesters change your Twitter icon to green - 

Sandra Charan

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When I placed the final full stop on my last blog post reporting on the blocking of Facebook and Twitter by a Chinese regime intent on silencing dissent, I determined that, considering that this is not foremost a political blog, I would not be penning an article on a similar topic for some considerable length of time. What I failed to anticipate was that China's actions to block free speech would be repeated just days later by another repressive global regime, namely Iran.

In short, following Iranian elections last week and the suspect announcement of a landslide victory for the nuclear power sabre rattling, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, certain events took place which seemed to mirror those occurring in China. Firstly protesters against the validity of the government's announcement of victory for the ruling party were involved in violent clashes with police in the streets of Tehran and many were arrested. Then, it seems that social network portals such as Twitter and Facebook were mysteriously slowed or blocked, no doubt in an attempt to prevent spread of dissident sentiment and centralized organization of protest.

The website of the main political opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi who has claimed that Ahmadinejad's victory is fraudulent and that he is the true victor has also been shut down as have many university websites. I started writing this post at the weekend but decided to wait for further developments before posting. Since then there have been further multiple protests, the largest being of up to 2 million people in the Iranian streets. The media have been told that they cannot attend unauthorized protests and further police brutality with some fatalities has occurred.

There seems to be no dispute that the much of the dissent is emanating from the youth of this extraordinary nation, where historically human civilization is said to have begun around 4000 BC. It is also commonly accepted that it is social networking sites and other new technologies such as texting which have been instrumental in shaping youth perspective. Repressive, totalitarian regimes rely, for their continued existence, on mindless repetition of the party line which becomes embedded into mass unconsciousness as a form of psychological conditioning. In order to ensure the longevity of such regimes dissent must be crushed, so that those predisposed to free thinking do not upset the applecart and encourage others to begin to question the status quo.

In a world of new technology and social networking, the attempts of despots to isolate the masses from any messaging extraneous to the party line seems to have become, if not impossible, fraught with difficulty. The Youth of Iran have certainly found ways around the blocks and have been communicating avidly on blogs and social network sites, a phenomenon which, it seems, is driving the protests.

Euronews reports that, "More than 150,000 Iranians are members of the social networking site Facebook – and more than two-thirds of Iran’s population is less than 30 years old." It is a statistic that does not bode well for the current administration.

Next week a meeting of the Council of Guardians will take place in Iran, which will finally settle whether the current administration will set out to rule with an iron rod, make some concessions or fully concede (unlikely). Whatever the short term outcome the stage has been set, the people have spoken and the clock is surely ticking for this regime.

The truth is that oppressive regimes, such as the one in Iran are now are being forced to wake up and recognise that the rules of politcs have changed. In short, in recent times a technological phenomenon has emerged that has potential to craft new world order. It seems the establishment can only watch on helplessly as the most powerful social change catalyst of all, emotion, is at lightning speed and like contagion traversing the spider web constructed of hundreds of thousands of miles of fibre optic cable to ignite the mass fervour of youth worldwide. To be sure we are living in extraordinary times.

To support the Iranian protesters and help others gain the freedom we in the free world take for granted please read:-

Quick Guide To Twittering The Iran Revolution

 and change your Twitter icon to green (step 9)

Further reading - Twitter goes green for Iran

Sandra Charan

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As Google's Christopher Bodeen reports, China, in anticipation of the double decade anniversary of the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, where many protesters were killed, took steps to silence any possible further dissent from being expressed on social networking sites. As such, thousands of university associated sites were muzzled and YouTube, Twitter and many blogs were blocked.

Perhaps unexpectedly, China has embraced the internet, dispite its potential as a conduit for spread of dissent. In fact, the numbers of Chinese internet users, who tend to be the most educated members of the population are set to exceed those in the US before long. However, there is a stark difference in the central administration of the internet in China compared to that in other world countries. In China the internet is being used as a tool of police monitoring. John J. Tkacik, Jr of the Heritage foundation reports that, "China is said to have the largest prison population of “cyberd­issidents” in the world."

The impact of this typically chilling and tyrannical approach for Chinese citizens, as China crafts its place as a major player in the modern world seems clear to most Westerners watching on. What many have failed to recognise, however, is the potential danger for the rest of the world, if there fails to be a change in China's political homeguard,  as it emerges, over the next two decades to become the world's number one economic Superpower.

In the modern world, few will argue that money equates to political power on the world stage. Significantly, where this is concerned, whereas, over past decades the West has followed an economic debt accumulating strategy that has bought it economically to it's knees, China has been building up a massive war chest of national reserves. In fact, it is loans of  Chinese money which has, to a large extent, enabled potential recovery from the credit crunch in the West.

The world media, so far, have remained in, "Hush, hush," mode as far as this is concerned. It is an uncomfortable concept but it cannot be denied that aid comes at a price. Over time what will the pay back be and how much influence will the ideals of the current Chinese administration, assuming they remain in power, have on the rest of us, over the years that they begin to gain more and more leverage in the power game?

Of relevance, perhaps, is China's new involvement in Africa. For as a result of its voracious appetite for the minerals needed to furnish its massively increased manufacturing output, China appears to be buying up Africa. According to Paul Stothart,  "China is becoming an important catalyst to the growth of Africa a continent that offers untapped raw material supply and market demand potential." There are some advantages to the growing relationship for example, as Stothard states, "China has cancelled $10 billion in bilateral debt from African countries." However, as Sothard also explains, "Chinese teachers and doctors are flowing to Africa, while African civil servants and military personnel are being trained in China." For those with eyes to see, there can be no question that along with the aid and the training, a political and social ideology is also being exported and that this has major implications for world politics.

Last Thursday was the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacres. It passed quietly with little or no visible dissent from Chinese citizens. Over the days weeks and months ahead let us all do what we can to support those Chinese citizens brave enough to risk their lives and well being to stand up for the ideals of freedom, democracy and free speech that we take for granted in the West. Further, let us hope that one day hopefully in the not too distant future social networking sites become portals of free speech universally for all citizens across the globe.

The daily political blog with its characteristic updates and, “topic of the moment,” talking points is now a mainstay of modern day democracy. There is no doubt that blogs are capable of mobilising people power and becoming focus points for mass expressions of public opinion. But can such blogs influence government policy?

In modern Britain, perhaps the influence of people power on political policy making began in 1834. This was the year that 30,000 people marched down Whitehall to protest against a sentence to transport six farm labourers to Australia for Trade Union activities. Even approaching 200 years ago, people power achieved its aim and the farm workers sentences were remitted.

Since those days, when news was spread mainly via newspaper, the world has changed beyond recognition. One of the major advancements has been in communications. We now have computer technology, social networks and blogs, which can spread information to hundreds of thousands of people instantaneously, meaning that people power has taken on a whole new meaning and scope.

So, what can blogs do, that newspapers can’t? The answer is, that, via comments sections,  they can invite instantaneous debate and drive inflamed public opinion in a way that newspapers can only dream of emulating. Over the past fortnight, the UK government official, Damien McBride, was forced to resign form his post as government aide, on account of an email he had sent to a political blogger detailing slanderous allegations relating to the personal lives of opposition party members.

The Blogger in question was Paul Staines and the Blog, Guidio Fawkes. Stephen Pollard informs us that, “Guido Fawkes had 147,689 unique visitors last month. A big number for an independent website.” However, Pollard argues that blogs would yield little political sway without, in tandem, coverage via conventional press and TV. As things stand ,at the moment, he may be right but there is no doubt that the political blog is becoming ever more influential in media terms. After all, Mark Tran reminds us that, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was broken by the US political blogger Matt Drudge.

Michael Beschloss, historian, Emmy-award winner, author and presidential scholar for NBC News certainly seems to believe that political blogs can wield real influence on government policy. According to Ari Melber, Beschloss even goes as far as suggesting that it was the liberal blog Kos which was the major orchestrator of US public opinion against the Iraq war. Obama won the election on the promise of, “change,”  however,what constituted that change remained largely unspecified. Might contributors to a blog such as Kos have filled in the blanks, for the rest of us, so that it became accepted that, “change,” at least in part, referred to a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

As far as history goes the blog, as an entity, remains in its infancy. It’s influence on governmental decision making will no doubt, be the subject of future doctoral theses, and analytical research initiatives. However, before these deliver concrete results, here’s a prediction that some time in the near future, Hollywood will be showering Oscars upon, “the film,” recounting the seedy tale of the Blogger and the political scandal. I have no doubt that someone, somewhere is making it, right now. After all, they’d be mad not to.

And here’s the thing.

Maybe it’s you.

Sandra Charan