Twittering the Iran Green Revolution

There is a titanic struggle going on in Iran between the forces of democracy and the forces of autocracy (masquerading as theocracy).

A lot is at stake, not just for Iranians, but also for prospects of peace in the region, and democracy throughout the world.

If the people win, it will send a strong message to the rest of the world that repression does not pay.
If repression prevails, it encourages all other Governments to believe that force and dishonesty can succeed.

In the long run, the autocrats will fall, because they always do, so all they are doing is slowing up the world's progress towards peace, democracy and sustainability.

There is always confusion in politics. Nothing is clear cut. The opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh ("Mousavi") is no Gandhi or Mandela, but he is a reformist, leaning towards freedom of information and some degree of emancipation of women. He is not a holocaust denier, unlike Ahmedinajad. He is in favour of Iran's nuclear programme, but is more willing to negotiate.

Whatever he may represent, he is clearly a more reasonable man than Ahmedinajad, and he has the support of the people. It is our duty to support the Iranians who are protesting against the stolen election.

There is huge activity on the Internet, especially on Twitter.

If not already on Twitter, this is what to do:
1 Go to http://twitter.com and sign in
2 enter #iranelection or #gr88 into the search window
3 start reading, but with discernment. Remember that agents for the Iranian regime will be on Twitter, aiming to create confusion.
4 be careful about your input; do not inadvertently spread misinformation. Read this first: #iranelection cyberwar guide for beginners: "The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through twitter."

Things to do:
Have you signed the UN petition yet? It is a bit bland, but every little helps. [Update 19th June "UN HR boss urges Iran to rein in militia". Did our petition help to bring that about?]

Avaaz has a petition here.


Twitterers are changing their Twitter settings to location Teheran, time zone 3.5, in order to overwhelm the Iranian authorities' attempts to block Iranian twitterers.

There are some Iranian sites which pose a threat to protesters. One way of crashing them is to continually refresh the site. There is a machine available to do this. But it is a double edged weapon, because it seems also to make the whole Web slow in Iran. Proper site hacking is apparently a better way to do it, so here is a chance for hackers to put their skills to socially beneficial use...

Here is a manifesto of (at least some of) the protestors.

First hand account of one of the first demonstrations.

Click the label below or page up for more on this thread.

Weird footnote:
Daniel Pipes, an American neo-conservative, Islamophobe and Israeli chauvinist, said during a panel discussion at the Heritage Foundation that he would vote for Ahmadinejad if he could, because he prefers "an enemy who is forthright, blatant, obvious".


Evidence of Iranian vote-rigging.