Comments on: Iran: What’s Happening? Sifting Information from Rumours on Twitter

By: cynic.clinic

cynic.clinic — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:45:15 +0000

What gets me is how these dirty rotten politicians get people killed.
Its simple, Iran is selling its oil on Euro’s, and Israel doesnt like it.
So like Iraq got ‘democracy’, we are now ‘helping’ Iran get ‘free elections’.
Twitter is one big sham…
Oh wait, I bet the Iranians caused the financial crisis, or its that guy that lives in a cave doing this…
The FED of Israel is just breaking up another country… stupid!

By: Canuckistan

Canuckistan — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:33:21 +0000

Fair points in response. It is like any other tool and should be treated accordingly

By: Mike Dunn

Mike Dunn — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:28:33 +0000

Something I find odd is the focus on Twitter as a single entity rather than as a tool. Nobody’s counselling on the dangers of text messaging, email, op-ed’s or television which all, like Twitter, can spread lies and wrong information (and which are all, again like Twitter, mostly full of mindless chit-chat and require filtering to get to the ’serious’ stuff). At the same time nobody’s crediting any of these with bringing about revolutions.

It strikes me that an awful lot of journalists have signed up to Twitter not long before they needed to write an article about it and, not having really got a grasp of it, plump for either a gushing ‘this is revolutionary’ type-piece, or a ‘what is the point?’ article because they’re required to have an opinion and neither of these really requires much research. The same intense spotlight was on Facebook a while back, blogs before that, and even the internet in general before that.

By: Scott Lucas

Scott Lucas — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:52:45 +0000

Canuckistan,

I think Shafer’s piece has more to do with his self-confessed inability to sift through the material on Twitter than with the deficiencies of the (best) info coming across. It has provided more leads on developments — all of which need to be verified, of course — than those coming from int’l media (because of restrictions on their movement/reporting).

By: Canuckistan

Canuckistan — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:13:28 +0000

Here’s a cautionary note about Twitter and the events in Iran:
http://www.slate.com/id/2220736/

By: homer

homer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:33:04 +0000

There is a strong list of sites that have said that the sermon at the University tomorrow will be conducted by Khamenei and that Mr. Mousavi will be standing at his right hand side when the sermon is delivered.

What a sellout

By: Scott Lucas

Scott Lucas — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:57:04 +0000

Thanks to all — I’m taking a break with a bit of music tonight but will post an update, with discussion of these points, tomorrow morning.

By: World Threats » Blog Archive » More Signs of Regime Fractures

World Threats » Blog Archive » More Signs of Regime Fractures — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:23:24 +0000

[...] covering their faces so they can’t be identified, a sign of fear. There are also unverified reports of Basiji members laying down their arms, and sometimes even being arrested by local police for [...]

By: Mike Dunn

Mike Dunn — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:03:33 +0000

Roger / Thomas- thanks for the input, I'll ask Scott if he wants to update the post with your contributions when he's back. Meanwhile here's a link to the apparent photoshopping of the pro-Ahmadinejad rally.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:11:41 +0000

re: #15

photo here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/jun/17/iran-middleeast?picture=349003212

caption:
Supporters of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wave national flags and the flag of Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:53:16 +0000

Number 8: State released images of Pro-Ahmadinejad were doctored to make the crowd appear larger.

By: ChrisE

ChrisE — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:12:23 +0000

I think that is a sensible rationale- my point was whether this was a deliberate falsification by the opposition or the result of ‘chinese whispers’ potentially resulting from the two scenarios I gave. In effect, how the rumour started not why..