The minor storm over Telegraph journalist and blogger Will Heaven’s recent posts on social media and the ongoing unrest in Iran, has brought much discussion of the pros and cons of reposting Iranian activists’ comments on Twitter and Facebook. To get to the heart of the issue, however, one needs to take a look at Heaven’s assumptions regarding Deep Packet Inspection.

On his blog post of 29 December Heaven stated:

It is now thought that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is using Deep Packet Inspection to check Facebook messages and tweets for “anti-regime” keywords. Once this is done, they are able to pinpont the location of online protesters using their IP addresses. Then it’s just a knock on the door and a confiscated laptop for evidence.

But is the use of DPI to punish dissent really this simple?

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As #iranelection is overwhelmed, the conversation risks becoming diluted. But Twitter, having recognised its important role in post-election Iran, needs to act.