Facebook Does Too Little, Too Late With A Persian Version for Iranians
As of tonight, Facebook has launched a new beta version of the site in Persian, in order to further enable the flood of news that has poured out of Iran in the wake of that country's contested election last week.
As Twitter became the star platform for Iranians to convey breaking news from on the ground, Facebook has been quiet by comparison. Now, by releasing an edition in the official language of Iran (also colloquially called Farsi), its attempting to capture some of the revolutionary self-expression that has thus far passed it by.
Playing Catch-up
Adding a Persian version is a noble effort, but it's a week too late to aid in documenting the fiercest of protests, and is unlikely to shift attention either in Tehran or abroad.Whatever the language, Facebook pales in comparison to other social mediums currently in use for speedy transmission of events. To Iranians, Facebook is likely to be neither as familiar a publishing medium as blogs, nor relatively easy to access in the face of crackdowns (like Twitter is).
Persian Facebook might be viable for something with a longer-term vision, with groups and causes being better for cohesive political organizing than an amalgamation of hashtagged tweets. But for now, Facebook is decidedly ill-suited to helping Iranians to speak to the world.
Is Persian Necessary At All?
Even if it existed prior to the protests, a Persian Facebook may not actually be so helpful in supporting Iranians during a time of political strife.With one of the largest and most active blogospheres in the world, Iranians are not hurting for tools to express themselves politically and culturally online. They're just hurting for free access to them, which Facebook may not be able to provide considering it was blocked shortly before the election, and may even remain so.
As far as Twitter and other platforms go, the vast majority of those tweeting from within Iran are doing so in English. Adding a private, Persian-language social network to the mix isn't likely to aid those with the aim of communicating with the rest of the globe.
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I agree—the access problem is the primary issue. Secondarily, the difficulty of connecting into people's streams of information quickly if you're not their 'friend' on Facebook could make it difficult for people needing to change username often in order to avoid crackdowns. Of course, the privacy of Facebook could make it easier for people to express themselves—but only if that privacy were truly trustworthy, which I guess most people skeptical of governments or other large organizations are likely to doubt, especially with a new network.
Wrong...
http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/06/17/data-online-iranians-turning-to-facebook-during-crisis/
Brian,
The data that's being used to draw that particular conclusion is solely from the AddThis button. As Eric says himself in the post it's "just a piece of what’s going on right now. It doesn’t show the overall amount of sharing on Facebook and Twitter or other social networks"
He uses that small piece to draw a big conclusion anyway, but that doesn't mean the data is comprehensive.
The tool that has been much more useful for Iranians has been the Yauba privacy safe search engine. It allows Iranians and everyone else to bypass web censors and search anonymously.
@Steven: Right, Eric used a small piece of data to draw a big conclusion. In contrast, Marshall's piece cited plenty of sources with actual data documenting how much Twitter was being used from inside Iran to communicate far more than other platforms. Oh wait a second...
And of course, Facebook adding a language to their site, one which could help people organize within Iran, assist those who support revolution but don't speak English, and provide any Iranians with a platform that includes SMS status updates, mobile photo/video uploads, link sharing, and robust privacy controls is simply an attempt to grab some of Twitter's recent spotlight and really isn't necessary. Oh wait a second...
And of course, nobody uses Facebook to communicate and transmit information during fast-breaking events, especially not to their friends and family abroad, and especially considering they are a leader worldwide in active users, far ahead of services like Twitter. Oh wait a second...
And of course, so many of the assertions about Facebook's usefulness to Iranians in this article are supported by data and accounts from Iranians who would know. Oh wait a second...
And of course, while Facebook was blocked prior to the election, since it is far more well-known than newer and smaller services like Twitter, which was then blocked about the time of the election results and talk of revolution, it's not nearly as useful as Twitter. Oh wait a second...
I could go on, but you get the idea. I for one was quite surprised at both the tone and the assertions in this article, Steven.