… And not in a good way. Yesterday’s Democracy Now’s broadcast was especially interesting, given recent events occurring in Iran, and specifically, the resulting tag it received;
“Forget CNN or any of the major American “news” networks. If you want to get the latest on the opposition protests in Iran, you should be reading blogs, watching YouTube or following Twitter updates from Tehran, minute-by-minute.”1
It has come to be known as the “Twitter Revolution.” A movement largely praised by the world. The United States Government, most emphatically, included.
Here’s why it’s interesting. In, what I must admit, is quite a stunning (but, sadly, not surprizing) turn of events, during the recent G20 Summit held in Pittsburgh, last month, a man, Elliot Madison, was arrested for, get this, using the exact same means of communication. In much the same way. The only difference being he was in America, “home of the free,” not “repressive” Iran…
He is charged with “spread[ing] information about police movements during the G20 protests in order to help activists avoid arrest.”2 But what’s so utterly absurd is, apparently, Madison merely relayed, on a “decentralized version of Twitter,”3 what the police had already announced. Where’s the coverage? Where is the outrage?
And that was his crime. Ruining the law enforcement’s fun. And their chance to rough themselves up some protesters…
- 1 Iran’s Twitter Revolution, Ari Berman, The Nation, 06/15/2009
- 2 & 3 Government Arrests Activist for Twitter… Will Potter, Green Is The New Red, Oct 07, 2009