Before the election, I didn't really pay much attention to Iran. Sure, I was on Facebook and Twiter, but I didn't follow any of the groups or people supporting the various characters. Like many Americans, I was more concerned with things that affected me close to home. It as only in the week leading up to the election that I started paying any attention at all, as CNN reported that social networking sites had played a sizeable role in the opposition candidates' campaigns. I still didn't care much about Iran, but the story of how social media was changing politics, seemingly a continuation of what happened here in the US with Obama's campaign, was interesting to me.
Then the initial results came out. For the first couple days, I'll admit that I didn't pay much attention to the protests. I viewed it as people being sore losers, honestly. The fact that there were multiple sets of observers, and seeing how the opposition leaders weren't coming forward with any evidence beyond hearsay of ballot tampering or vote rigging left me skeptical. Afterall, pre-election polls have been wrong before. Need proof, Google "Dewey defeats Truman".
I didn't start actively following the #iranelection thread on Twitter until I heard about the initial backlash against the protesters on CNN, and how Iranian Tweeters were picking up the slack in the wake of a government imposed press blackout. Out of curiousity, I checked it out.
Now at that point, there were literally thousands of tweets a minute with the #iranelection tag in them, running the gambit from government agents, to spammers, to radicals who wanted the US to invade immediately, to thousands upon thousands of people outside Iran, wishing to show support. In the middle of this virtual tsunami of information, I managed to find a few tweets by people who were on the ground in Iran, giving a real account of what was going on. It was by tweeting with these diamonds in the rough, that I was able to get the full story.
I watched as the movement changed almost overnight from a call for new, fair elections, to a call for the overthrow of the entire government. I watched the twitpics and videos coming in of protesters going against riot police with stones. I watched the outrage grow as the brutality of the crackdown intensified.
Maybe it is a comment on my having seen too many movies, read too many sci-fi and horror novels, but when I saw one such tweeter ask whether the day could get any worse, I was surprised they had to ask. There was plenty of room to go, if the regime wanted to go for absolute worst. Allow the protesters to enter the square, and trap them there, before setting up machine guns at all the entrances, and on the surrounding rooftops. And then shoot anything that moves. That would be the worst.
Then the Supreme Leader made his speech. If he was trying to get the movement to die down, he miscalculated royally. I watched as the tone of the tweets coming out of Iran changed. Beatings became shootings. Neda died. Government agents began appearing on twitter. There were warnings of trap proxies, and hackers trying to find the people who dared to speak to the outside world. And one by one, the tweets went silent out of Iran. One person I was following, @persiankiwi, gave this haunting message: "we must go - dont know when we can get internet - they take 1 of us, they will torture and get names - now we must move fast - #Iranelection". Moments later, @persiankiwi went silent. That was on the 24th, and he hasn't posted since.
My heart goes out to all the Iranians out there, those who've been wounded, those who've been taken, and those who are still out there. Keep strong, but keep your head down. Stay safe out there.
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