When I think back to the media storm that focussed around Twitter’s revolutionary role in the protests against Ahmadinejad’s phony elections, I realize what rubbish this was. There were really only 8,600 tweeters from Iran. With the government blocking Twitter, that small group must have been even smaller. To say that the Iranian protests were a product of a “Twitter revolution” is really something of a fantasy of the media — tech journalists suggesting Iranians would have been powerless without the amazing and indispensible wonders of (American) technology.
So the Post reported that Google will be permanently suspended in preparation of the anniversary of the Iranian Revolutions on February 11. Obviously this is a response to the media’s portrayal of the Internet as this crazy subversive platform. Well-intentioned journalism which credits technology too enthusiastically, may ironically prevent the very places they write about from being able to embrace this technology. So the Iranians pay the price.
On the bright side of things, they won’t have to ever have to know that eyesore called Google Buzzzz.
March 15, 2010 at 4:26 pm
hmm hmm hmm, thought you might enjoy this, as it is linked: http://www.france24.com/en/20100312-iranian-feminist-blogger-social-media-rethink-china-google
I have to say, though, that I do actually agree that the Internet is changing the way protest is conceived of in the Middle East, because it is a much more accessible platform, especially for the frustrated younger generation and also for the diaspora.