Iran's Mobile SMS Up & Running; Will Twitter Start to Lose the Green Hues?
According to a report today from the BBC, Iranians are able to text message one another for the first time since the day before the presidential elections.
SMS service, which political dissidents had used to spread messages and organize protests, has been restricted since June 11, causing many Iranians to use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social sites to broadcast and communicate.
The BBC report stated that, according to Iranian news outlets, SMS capabilities are now unblocked but that users are experiencing massive technical problems. Some messages as old as three weeks were just now being received, and some messages were delivered multiple times.
Iran's broken digital communication infrastructure caused many Iranians to turn to services such as Twitter, using proxies to work around government restrictions for web use. Twitter became so integral to Iranians' communication, particularly with the wider global community, that the U.S. State Department asked Twitter to postpone scheduled maintenance which would have occurred in the immediate aftermath of the election and resultant protests. Other services rushed to add Persian translation features.
Hopefully, the unblocking of text messaging in Iran is a sign that communication channels are returning to normal. So, does this mean that everyone's new favorite color, "Solidarity Green," will begin to fade away from social web avatars sometime soon? Once the country and its government emerge from crisis mode, what news will come from Iran, and what will the Internet have to say about it?
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As the post itself says, iran updates via twitter were more followed by people across the globe, so it doesnt seem that twitter usage will slow down just because the SMS usage has been unblocked.
Twitter is an SMS replacement (it's Direct Messages feature, in particular), but SMS is not Twitter's replacement, as Twitter can be used for direct communication, narrowcasting and broadcasting.
Thus, Iranians who felt the fresh air of Twitter will continue to use it. Besides, they cannot be sure SMS infrastructure won't be disabled in future, so Twitter seems to be more reliable (and independent from government!) service.
"Some messages as old as three weeks were just now being received, and some messages were delivered multiple times"
Is this not a ploy for the government to identify the people/persons against the government? Sorry if I am getting paranoid - but it best to replace SIMS at this difficult time, what do you think?
i don't know if blocking communication is a good thing, but in this case seeing what would happen if the communication made loose, i cannot imagine what iran would be with all the chaos that could happen...
perlengkapan bayi
It's odd but I think since Michael Jackson death, we talk less and less about Iran. At least, with people I follow it started to decrease since this time. Is it representative of the general trend?
Nearly all people with a green avatar are back to normal ... and I see less news about life in Iran. Not sure it's nice: it would mean we react on Twitter with emotions and less with our head.
i don't know if blocking communication is a good thing, but in this case seeing what would happen if the communication made loose, i cannot imagine what iran would be with all the chaos that could happen.
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Good thank :)