The document discusses the role of social media, particularly Twitter, in the protests following Iran's disputed 2009 presidential election. It provides perspectives from journalists and experts on how Twitter and other platforms enabled protesters to organize and share information outside of the government's control, with some arguing it helped spark the first "Twitter Revolution," while others were more skeptical of Twitter's actual impact within Iran.

1. Lesson #8
Can Twitter Lead
a Revolution?

2. The Situation
• Elections were held in Iran on Friday, June 12th; 10th
presidential election since 1979 Islamic Revolution
• Decision between hard-line president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and Mir Hossein Mousavi
• Ahmadinejad declared the winner by a 2-to-1
landslide on Saturday, June 13th (Ahmadinejad with
62.6% of the vote to 33.75% for Mousavi)
• Mousavi said the vote was tainted by widespread
fraud and his followers responded with serious
unrest
2

3. What Happened
• Demonstrations/protests began immediately
• Protestors took to the Internet
• Iranian military declared that Iranian websites and
blogs that “create tension” must pull down their
content or face consequences
• Foreign journalists were encouraged to leave the
country and seemed to be restricted from
reporting in the streets of Tehran
• Information circulates that social media is playing
some role: Facebook, Flickr,YouTube and Twitter
• On Wednesday, June 17th, the U.S. State
Department asks Twitter to delay routine
maintenance which sparks immediate interest
from the U.S. press
3

4. What role is
social media playing, if any?

5. “What is fascinating to me is the
degree to which in Iran today - and in
Lebanon - the more secular forces of
moderation have used technologies
like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, blogging
and text-messaging as their virtual
mosque, as the place they can now
gather, mobilize, plan, inform and
energize their supporters, outside the
grip of the state.”
-- Tom Friedman, NY Times, Tuesday, June 16

6. “When histories of the Iranian
election are written, Twitter will
doubtless be cast as a protagonal
technology that enabled the powerless
to survive a brutal crackdown and
information blackout by the ruling
authorities.”
-- Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic Monthly,
Monday, June 15

7. “However things turn out in Iran, this
will probably be forever known as the
Twitter Revolution.”
-- Kevin Jones, MotherJones.com,
Monday, June 15

8. “Twitter is my new CNN.”
-- Twitter user, Monday, June 15

9. “[T]his event hast been Twitter’s
finest hour.”
-- Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Monthly and The
Daily Dish blog, Monday June 15

10. “These are just a handful of data
points that have been shooting around
the Internet, via Twitter or the
opposition-friendly blogs. And all
have been instrumental in building a
public opinion case against the Iranian
government for undercounting the
support for Mousavi. The problem is,
none of them appear any longer to be
true.”
-- Joshua Kucera True/Slant, Monday, June 15

11. “Twitter is so simplistic and silly that
it is a perfect digital tool to overthrow
a government - which kind of makes
the trendy microblogging service the
Forrest Gump of international
relations.”
-- All Things Digital, Tuesday, June 16

12. “This is the first revolution that has been catapulted
onto a global stage and transformed by social media.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the Chicago
demonstrations of 1968 where they chanted “the
whole world is watching.” Really, that wasn’t true
then. But this time it’s true...and people throughout
the world are not only listening but responding.
They’re engaging with individual participants, they’re
passing on their messages to their friends, and they’re
even providing detailed instructions to enable web
proxies allowing Internet access that the authorities
can’t immediately censor. That kind of participation
is really extraordinary.
-- Clay Shirkey, NYU Professor, Tuesday, June 16

13. “Twitter’s impact inside Iran is zero.
Here, there is lots of buzz, but once
you look...you see most of it are
Americans tweeting among
themselves.”
-- Mehdi Yahyanejad, manager of a Farsi-
language news site based in Los Angeles,
Wednesday, June 17

14. Questions?
Emily Blake
ereeves@stoneward.com brutherford@stoneward.com
501.772.6142 (text) 501.772.6108 (text)
@reeves501 @blakerutherford