Social Networking sites mysteriously blocked in post-election Iran
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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