US asks Twitter to stay online because of Iran vote

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

[offsite:23j4i4gy]US asks Twitter to stay online because of Iran vote

The Obama administration took the unusual step of asking Twitter to delay a planned maintenance outage because of the social blogging site's use as a communications tool by Iranians following their disputed election, a senior official said Tuesday.

The request highlighted the administration's Web-savvy ways and the power of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook in organizing protests over the election results in the face of a ban by Iranian authorities on other media.

But it also seemed to run counter to President Barack Obama's public efforts not to appear to be meddling in Iran's internal affairs.

Twitter delayed Monday's scheduled tuneup, which would have taken place during daylight hours in Iran, and rescheduled it for Tuesday. The site went down around 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) for what was expected to be about an hour.

A State Department official in Washington said Twitter had been asked to delay Monday's shutdown because the micro-blogging service was being used as "an important means of communications" in Iran.

The official told reporters on condition of anonymity that Twitter was all the more important because the Iranian government had shut down other websites, cell phones, and newspapers.

"One of the areas where people are able to get out the word is through Twitter," the official said. "They announced they were going to shut down their system for maintenance and we asked them not to."

The Raw Story | US asks Twitter to stay online because of Iran vote (http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_asks_Twitter_to_stay_online_beca_06162009.html)[/offsite:23j4i4gy]

Tweet this Imadinnerjacket!

[pack3tg0st]

wow... not only is twitter getting loads of free publicity and thus, revenue (ads), but the president is getting another chance to manipulate the free market economy AND meddle in the internal politics of a country we have no business fuckin' with?

sounds like a winner all around for the usual suspects eh?

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

I don't think Twitter has any ads yet...

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

Wow, the tweets are flying, RT updates: #Iranelection (http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23Iranelection)

Looks like the army is standing with the protesters...

[Alessandra]

good on Twitter. You know, not everything is a conspiracy, packet lol.

[Lexion]

It's all a conspiracy.

[pack3tg0st]

hrm... you are correct Goos!

I've never been to twitter

but a quick search reveals that no one seems to know how they make money...

perhaps its time to do a little digging

[Alessandra]

<.<

[pack3tg0st]

Its all one big conspiracy chii...

the real conspiracy isn't the NWO, or Grays... or anything of the sort...

Instead, its the flow of money, and thusly power...

therefore, its ALL part of the conspiracy :P

I read into Obama asking twitter to stay up as him saying "our propaganda campaign in Iran needs a few extra hours to get up and going strong... please stay up so we can continue to manipulate the situation in Iran"...

I'm also willing to bet Obama didn't want the fact he asked them to stay up to be public.

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

Twitter quote: RT Quote of the day- "140 chars is a novel when you're being shot at."

Twitter is one of their only means of organization currently...

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

They're running about 32 "tweets" every ten or so seconds...

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

Eeek! A mouse!

[attachment=0:qwrxy422]GbwhK.jpg[/attachment:qwrxy422]

[pack3tg0st]

How many tweets do you suppose are from CIA and other government agencies... affecting the outcome of the "demonstrations" as much as possible...

When we get involved with politics in other countries, its typically to state a CIA coup.

on a side note... anyone know anything about Institutional Venture Partners or Benchmark Capital? They just dropped 35 million bucks in venture capital to twitter...

Twitter is monetized... if its not a money maker, than why the hell would these people drop 35 mil?

Goos: smited for that picture lol

[Lexion]

CIA....


Said it in another thread.

Regards,
Lex

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

More:

[offsite:1lwsf0nq]Twitter asked to delay service after Iran vote



THE US government has asked Twitter to delay maintenance plans in order to allow Iranians to communicate while their government has banned other media following elections.

A US official said today the State Department had asked the social networking firm to delay shutting down its service to "highlight to them that this was an important means of communications... in Iran".

The State Department official said on condition of anonymity that the Twitter service was all the more important because the Iranian government had shut down websites, mobile phones and newspapers.

"One of the areas where people are able to get out the word is through Twitter," the official said. "They announced they were going to shut down their system for maintenance and we asked them not to."

Protesters in Iran yesterday used Twitter for battle cries and to spread word about clashes with police and hardline supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Messages posted on the micro-blogging service, some with links to pictures, streamed from Iran despite reported efforts by authorities there to block news of protests over Mr Ahmadinejad&#39;s claim of having been fairly re-elected.

Pictures of wounded or dead people that senders claim were Iranian protesters ricocheted about Twitter and wound up posted at online photo-sharing websites such as Flickr as well as on YouTube.

A protester was reportedly shot dead during clashes in Tehran as massive crowds of people defied a ban to stage a rally against the disputed re-election of Mr Ahmadinejad.

The trouble flared after Mr Ahmadinejad&#39;s defeated rival Mir Hossein Mousavi appeared in public for the first time since an election that has sharply divided the nation and triggered protests and rioting.

The official said he did not know who at the State Department called Twitter, but it was not Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The Australian |
Twitter asked to delay service after Iran vote (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25648922-12377,00.html)[/offsite:1lwsf0nq]

Tweet quote - "youtube is ridiculous for removing footage of Iran conflict. Doesn't the world need to see?"

[Alessandra]

youtube is notorious for participating in douchebaggery

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

n]wLevro-B7bkn]

[pack3tg0st]

yah man... this shit wreaks of Gov't interference... some of the posts seem to be trying to incite revolution...

how does anyone know this: [offsite:fifagwzg]NEWS: Ahmadinejad spotted in Russia wearing disguise.[/offsite:fifagwzg]

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

Picture that proves election was rigged (http://loft965.com/2009/06/17/picture-that-proves-iran-election-rigging/)

[pack3tg0st]

From Twitter feeds:

[offsite:1bequdsl]Obama: "When I see violence directed at peaceful protesters, when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed… it concerns me."[/offsite:1bequdsl]

[offsite:1bequdsl]Can you believe all these dreams will be denied?[/offsite:1bequdsl]

[offsite:1bequdsl]"There have been tyrants,& murderers,& for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall...Always."[/offsite:1bequdsl]

[offsite:1bequdsl]“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”[/offsite:1bequdsl]

And now, on one of my hack forums... we're seeing messages asking us to help wage a cyberwar... with a link: [spoiler:1bequdsl]http://docs.google.com/View?id=dc4rpwn7_0g7xxc4d3[/spoiler:1bequdsl] (no worries, its safe, I checked).

We're going to see all out revolution... and we're going to find out later that it was financed, armed and sanctioned by the united states...

edit: Put spoiler on link in a feeble attempt to foil spiders

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

Evil spiders spoil our cyberwar...

[Alessandra]

>_<

[pack3tg0st]

Another "evil" regime toppled at the whim of the U.S. Govenment...

Next, military support and all out war in Pakistan...

BTW... Russia sides with Iran... if this does ignite, it could be WWIII

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

[offsite:3lujfqpj]...Do you get the sense that these new media tools are helping build a global community, forged more by technology and a desire for connection, than by traditional political or religious divides?
You can see it clearly in what&#39;s happening right now. And it cuts both ways. The guy we&#39;re rallying around, Mousavi, is no liberal reformer. But the principle of freedom of speech and fair elections and the desire for reform trump that.

So how does this play out?
It&#39;s complex. The Ahmadinejad supporters are going to use the fact of English-speaking and American participation to try to damn the dissidents. But whatever happens from here, the dissidents have seen that large numbers of American people, supposedly part of "the great Satan," are actually supporters. Someone tweeted from Tehran today that "the American media may not care, but the American people do." That&#39;s a sea-change.

Q&A with Clay Shirky on Twitter and Iran (http://blog.ted.com/2009/06/qa_with_clay_sh.php?utm_campaign=ted&utm_content=site-basic&utm_medium=on.ted.com-copypaste&utm_source=twitter.com)[/offsite:3lujfqpj]

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

BTW... Russia sides with Iran... if this does ignite, it could be WWIII

But the Iranian military sides, from all accounts, with the people...

[skunk]

Someone tweeted from Tehran today that "the American media may not care, but the American people do." That's a sea-change.

Yeah.

[pack3tg0st]

one twitterhead hit the nail on the head lol

[offsite:29dhperb]Sounds like bullshit, smells like bullshit, that means it must be government propoganda[/offsite:29dhperb]

[pack3tg0st]

BTW... Russia sides with Iran... if this does ignite, it could be WWIII

But the Iranian military sides, from all accounts, with the people...

Iranian military won't matter.

Russian support...

And in walks the taliban... just a short walk across the border in pakistan.

[pack3tg0st]

From Georgia (the country, not the state):

[offsite:331kshwx]Ministry of Intelligence confirms that protests funded by foreign intelligence agencies[/offsite:331kshwx]

There's probably some truth in that.

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

Prolly a lot of bullshit, too...

[pack3tg0st]

[offsite=http://www.nineronline.com/viewpoint/iran-protests-incite-riots-us-news-coverage-almost-absent-1.1762754:30eewrlm]Iran protests incite riots, US news coverage almost absent
Will Grier

Editor-in-Chief

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Published: Sunday, June 14, 2009
Updated: Sunday, June 14, 2009

MCT Campus
Under the gaze of Supreme leader Ali Khamanei and the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, election officials watch the balloting at Tehran&#39;s Hosseini Ershad Mosque, Friday, June 12, 2009.
On Sunday, protestors lined the streets in opposition to the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. If you haven’t heard much about it, if anything at all you are not to blame. The American media outlets are siding with the White House’s passive stance – to not pass a judgment on the results of the election until sufficient evidence is brought forward.
Many believe that this election was rigged, allowing Ahmadinejad to win by a landslide. According to Iran’s Interior Ministry, Ahmadinejad won 62 percent of the vote while his opposition, Mir Hossein Mousavi, receiving only 33.8 percent of the vote.

Ahmadinejad has credited his presidency with: continuing Iran’s nuclear program; downplaying the global economic crisis and the September 11th, 2001 attacks; denouncing the existence ofIsrael, and outright denying the Holocaust.

Moussavi’s platform for election was to break down barriers and unify the Iranian people in the Islamic republic of Iran. These ideals have been called ‘reformist’ and would take away power from the Supreme ruler, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, who presently has to approve of presidential elections and any foreign or domestic affair.

Moussavi’s first major goal was to allow for private television broadcasters to operate. Right now, all television stations are state-owned.

The Iranian people, namely the youth of the country, are in extreme disbelief of the results of the election. The sequence of events leading upto this point paint the picture that the Iranian government is lying about the election results.
Time magazine reports that, “Even though Iran&#39;s Electoral Commission allows three days to hear challenges before presenting results to Khamenei for approval, the Supreme Leader rushed to put his seal of approval on the outcome, and warned all political factions to refrain from challenging it.”

During the development of the protests and movements in Iran, here in the United States, CNN showed reruns of Larry King Live, and squawked about slanderous comments against Bristol Palin. Viewers were graced with about one-and-a-half minutes of news concerningthe riots in Tehran, Iran –said clip was replayed all night, with no new information until the morning hours.

But then again, the Associated Press was posting multiple stories on the riots and YouTube videos of the protesting are plentiful; much more could have been done when covering the demonstrations in Iran. The content and news was all there, aggregated and spelled out.

I must have missed the memo that said the White House dictates what stance the media takes on an issue, I guess I’ll write my Senator for a copy. Where can you go for real news? Unfortunately, it’s Twitter.

The Iranian government imposed a cut-off for all SMS (text) messages and blocked access to many social networking sites. Reports say that students were able to circumvent the blocks by visiting proxy sites that allowed a Twitter users to log in and post without going through the main Web site.

From about midnight last night, streams of Tweets came from several students at the University of Iran, where several hundred protestors gathered in opposition to Ahmadinejad’s victory. Change_for_Iran, the twitter account which posted a great deal of information, tweeted that security forces had gathered a large force and surrounded the physics building at the University. Herein the U.S. CNN reports, “there is unrest.”

Following Twitter feeds, ”Mir Hossein Mousavi and 100 of his reformist followers have been placed under house arrest.” Continuing on, “the crowd of protesters have overwhelmed riot police!”

It’s a sad day when social networking sites provide more news than CNN, “The most respected name in news.” BBC journalists have done a fine job of covering the riots, their series of articles are some of the more informative that I have found. You can view these articles at http://news.bbc.co.uk/ and get up-to-date about the real story in Iran.[/offsite:30eewrlm]

Hrm... no media coverage... the president gives a speech aimed towards iranians days before the election... then requests twitter to modify its maintenence schedule... but doesn't want to "get involved" in the politics over there...

CIA...

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

OMG! Twitter is a CIA front! :roll:

[Alessandra]

lol damn right, Goos :P

[pack3tg0st]

Not talking about Twitter lol

I'm talking about the "protests".

If you've noticed, the protestors are calling it a "Revolution" now...

Or could that be the CIA gently nudging this scenario in the desired direction?

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

[offsite:16mcbenq][The protest] is absolutely not against the Islamic republic or the Islamic revolution.

It&#39;s clearly an Islamic protest against specifically the personality, the manner, the language of Ahmadinejad. They absolutely despise him but they do not hate or dislike the Islamic republic that they live in.

ABC News |Extraordinary scenes: Robert Fisk in Iran (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/17/2600571.htm)[/offsite:16mcbenq]

[pack3tg0st]

supposedly... but who knows...

I'm reading non-U.S. sources...

In Britain they're saying its the young fighting against the ENTIRE system...

In Russia, they're saying this happens every few years, and everythign will be fine...

However, all sources state that their Supreme Leader told them to recognize the election, and to stand down... and they ignored him...

That could mean nothing... but then again, it could mean alot...

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

CNN's devoting time to the Twitter angle; they're running green behind C. Amanpour's talking head...

[pack3tg0st]

I'm willing to bet that was because they were called out specifically by the iranian protestors lol

might be wrong...

but I'm probably not lol

CNN got served.

[Lexion]

I called CIA, a week ago.

Noone believed me.

Meh,
Lex

[pack3tg0st]

thats okay lex...

I'm calling CIA now...

no one is believing me lol

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

"The tweeters shown below are possible fakes accounts and may have connections to the Iranian Security aparatus."

Fake Iran election Tweeters (http://twitspam.org/?p=1403)

[Alessandra]

ty, Goos, I just Twittered that.

[apeci]

That could mean nothing... but then again, it could mean alot...
Look at it this way. I still have yet to watch television this year and it doesn't mean much to me. I'm guessing it only means a lot to the media. Russia does tend to be the "stfu yer dumb" type, but maybe the CIA and SVR are duking it out again.

It's a good thing though if so. Gets expensive.

[KIWI]

Another "evil" regime toppled at the whim of the U.S. Govenment...

Next, military support and all out war in Pakistan...

BTW... Russia sides with Iran... if this does ignite, it could be WWIII

go pac !!...this should be updated soon

[attachment=0:x81vfi4x]AnotherFreeCountry.jpg[/attachment:x81vfi4x]