June 17, 2009
Posted: June 17th, 2009 12:45 PM ET

From
 Join the conversation on Jack's blog.
Join the conversation on Jack's blog.

Whether or not there's another political revolution in Iran — there's no doubt the country has already witnessed a technological revolution.

Iranian officials have been trying to clamp down on the flow of information in all the ways these regimes do — restricting the coverage of western journalists, kicking others out of the country, shutting down web sites.

But it's not working this time — and one of the big reasons is social media networks like Twitter and Facebook. Many of the young demonstrators — 70-percent of Iranians are under 30 — have used these technologies as a tool to coordinate their protests over the election's outcome. They're also posting graphic pictures and videos of the crackdown by officials.

The U.S. State Department points to Twitter as one of the ways Iranians can "get the word out," and officials in this country are even following these social networks. In fact, the government contacted Twitter at one point asking them to delay a planned update that would shut the system down temporarily.

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Filed under: Cafferty File


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