Twitter-Pated

I finally broke down this week and joined Twitter. As social networking goes, it’s really great, I’m sure, but the reason that I joined wasn’t so that I could hook up with friends. It was because a friend told me that Iran needed my help. Being that I’m a curious sort, I started asking questions about how my being on Twitter could help. The answer I was given: “To help protect the lives of people who need to get information out.”

This is a heavy kind of trip, and it’s certainly not something I’d have expected. But the real truth is, the Basij troops were victimizing people in an attempt to regain control. They are hated in their own country—and apparently with good reason: plain-clothes Basiji troops were verified to have stormed homes, broken into universities, and as of this writing have killed over 30 people and arrested hundreds of people. A couple of the Ayatollahs even got into the act—one declaring violence against the people Haram (against Islamic law), and the other apparently condoning the violence on the grounds that the people were being violent (which, mostly, they weren’t).

But the sheer cruelty of the authorities against the people who weren’t actually making trouble was made apparent in every one of the thousands of images and dozens of videos which came through unofficial channels—and there was evidence through the official channels of Photoshop being used to increase the numbers of people who were present. It’s as though they believe the public is stupid or infantile. This kind of sounds like some Hollywood executives, too… but I digress.

The most difficult thing in the world is to break an idea. You can kill people; you can’t kill an idea, once it catches on. The government’s been caught red-handed in election fraud (though an even 120% of the election counts say that the incumbent was the winner). And they’ve been trying hard to build a propaganda machine, but it just hasn’t worked.

To their credit, the Obama administration has kept their noses out of it, promising to open dialog with whichever side actually wins. This is really about democracy, and the will of the people to effect change in a regime which has resisted change for 30 years. When the smoke finally settles, I hope that a productive and peaceful dialog can be opened, in which both Iran and the United States can walk away winners.

But wow, the people who try to take advantage of the number of people who are simply in there to try to help! Spammed adverts for software, music, and even services not related to anything seem to be essentially shooting themselves in the foot. People don’t like it when you advertise something fun in the middle of a somber occasion.

And they don’t like it when you rig an election, either.