Social media buzzing after the Iran elections

Updated June 20 2009



Something is brewing in Iran. And the people are reporting.

Thousands of angry protesters have clashed with police in several cities in Iran after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of Iran's presidential poll. He claims victory over his rival Mir Hossein Mousavi, who called the results a "charade". (Full)

As violence broke out, the mobile phone network was switched off for hours and Internet connectivity was either interrupted or slow at least. Still, in what seems to become a school example of crowdsourced reporting at its best, individuals got their messages out through different social media channels.

Twitter is abuzz with on-the-ground reports directly from Iran by @madyar, @mohamadreza and @IranRiggedElect to name a few. Many of the tweets contain direct updates, local news, eyewitness reports, and pictures directly posted on Twitpic way before the mainstream media picked up. (The up to date list of all Twitterers in Iran, you find in this post)
New "special occasion" Twitter accounts like @Change_for_Iran got 4,000 followers in the first 12 hours.

Even foreign correspondents like @thomas_erdbrink (deleted his account), ABC correspondents Jim Sciutto and @LaraABCNews resort to Twitter when they can not get their official messages out, and to assemble information.



Tweets about the elections are tagged "#iranelection" so they can easily be searched and followed. #iranelection quickly shot to the most popular tag on Twitter.

The blogosphere is on a high run too. Iran News, Teheran bureau and Revolutionary Road are some examples of the bloggers active from different places in Iran, giving "liveblogging" a whole new meaning.

Other Iranian bloggers seem to be as active on the streets as in the Blogosphere. IranElections even features a picture of the imprints of police battons on his back and arms. Tehran Live posts excellent pictures.

Online blog coverage is available via blog giants Huffington Post and The Daily Dish. Global Voices does an excellent job in translating Tweets and blogs covering the post-elections'turmoil from Farsi to English, while expat Iranian bloggers are using their in-country connections to keep up. - check out NiacINsight.

There is a flood of pictures coming in on Flickr (look at Iran Streets After Elections) and plenty of videos taken from mobile phones posted on YouTube.



Facebook has been trying to keep up, even though access to the most popular social media resource was said to be blocked in Iran after the elections. There is the opposition leader Mousavi's Facebook page, with comments mostly in Farsi and page of the student movement. For English exchanges, check Where is my vote?

Meanwhile, social bookmarking sites start what they do best: spreading the links to the actual news resources. This thread on Reddit even contains tips on how to access Facebook from inside Iran, bypassing the government firewall.

As we get into the second day of protests, aggregators like Twazzup present an overview of the incoming flow of crowdsourced information. Check this out: Twazzup's Iran page. (Tnx for the tip, Uli!)

While foreign reporters and camera crews have their equipment confiscated, it looks like the authorities are trying to take a grip on the country again.

I wonder with the proliferation of social media if crowdsourced reporting will be or can be muffled. Short of disconnecting Iran from the international telephone network and pulling the plug on the Internet completely, it seems there is no stopping.

As the Daily Dish puts it in The Revolution will be Twittered:

That a new information technology could be improvised for this purpose so swiftly is a sign of the times. It reveals in Iran what the Obama campaign revealed in the United States. You cannot stop people any longer. You cannot control them any longer. They can bypass your established media; they can broadcast to one another; they can organize as never before.

Picture courtesy Revolutionary Road

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News: New case of fraud at the UN

A U.N. task force has uncovered five new cases of corruption, fraud and mismanagement involving $20 million in contracts.

The cases span air charter services in Congo, office supplies in Kenya, consulting jobs in Greece and payroll services at the New York headquarters. They are the latest cases in a three-year investigation into U.N. purchasing that has exposed more than $630 million in contracts tainted by fraud, corruption or mismanagement at the United Nations. (Full)

[Ed: whatever we can expose, should be exposed, and without reservations. Only that way, we will clean up the system!]

See also this post: Sometimes i am ashamed to work for the UN.

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News: Russia - Elections rigged. Zimbabwe - Elections to be rigged.

From Russia with fraud.
Ahead of last month's presidential election in Russia there was widespread suspicion the poll was fixed in advance. Last week, physicist and computer expert Sergei Shpilkin posted his analysis of the official results, showing some strange anamolies: a disproportionate number of polling stations returned round numbers - numbers ending in a zero or a five - for both voter turnout and Medvedev's percentage share.
His conclusion: local election officials had been told in advance what percentages to "deliver" for Medvedev, Putin's handpicked successor, and for how many people needed to "vote". (Full)


Zimbabwe's Mugabe follows the 2000 Florida example:
"Recount until we get what we want!"
Zimbabwe’s election officials, at the government’s behest, began a partial recount on Saturday of the disputed presidential election results, while a human rights group accused members of the ruling party of running “torture camps” to punish opposition supporters.
Opposition leaders went to court on Friday to try to block the recount, arguing the government had not applied for it within 48 hours of the vote, as prescribed by law. It comes as no surprise they lost their case. (Full
Let's make a prediction, shall we? Hmmmm, we are predicting [wet finger in the air], hmmmm... Mugabe will win after the recount. Wanna bet?

Pictures courtesy AFP/Getty and hiphoprepublican.com

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