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The aftermath of Iran's election last week was startling. From the eyebrow-raising lopsided vote tally, to the surge of protesters into the streets, to the pivotal role of tools like mobile phones, Twitter, and YouTube in getting the story out, it's hard to say what's been the most remarkable.

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.

With Twitter and Facebook playing such an important roll in getting information out of Iran this week, the last thing the world needs is an appearance of The Fail Whale. CNN's State Department Producer, Elise Labott, reported this morning on the Anderson Cooper blog that "the State Department is advising social networking sites to make sure their networks stay up and running for Iranians to use them and helping them stay ahead of anyone who would try to shut them down."

Twitter decided yesterday to delay a scheduled downtime for maintenance until the middle of the night, Iran time. CNN reports that the decision was made at the suggestion of the State Department, but a large number of users suggested it as well. Incidentally, open source Twitter alternative Identi.ca, which has the potential to be much more useful due to its decentralized nature, followed Twitter's lead and also made major changes at a time convenient for Iranians.

The Twitter firehose is glutted with retweets, hashtags, and information of every possible bias and contradition surrounding one topic: The recent election in Iran and supposed fraud in tallying votes for the losing candidate, Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

In the aftermath of the election, during which a (some say statistically improbable landslide) victory for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was announced, the social media buzz grew into a roar as a meme began to circulate: Where Is My Vote. A website, several Facebook pages, and now thousands of tweets have ensured few social web users have not yet heard of the controversy and the Iranian government's response of censorship.

Note: This post was written at midnight PST last night, at which point CNN.com was hours behind much of the rest of online media in prioritizing the big news in Iran. The site has since focused on Iran but we believe this post remains relevant in discussing concerns about what sources are first in covering important events. For really good journalism on these events, see Robert Fisk's account.

The western world's most feared government is shaking with insurrection in the streets after a contested election and the leading name in news, CNN, is shockingly absent from the story. Twitter, meanwhile, is how Iranians are communicating with the outside world. It's the best place to follow events going on in that country and CNN's failure to engage with the story is one of the hottest topics of conversation there.

Hours after Iranian police began clashing with tens of thousands of people in the street, the top story on CNN.com remains peoples' confusion about the switch from analog TV signals.

There are reports today that Iran has blocked Facebook, apparently to "prevent supporters of the leading opposition candidate from using the site for his campaign". Opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has more than 5200 supporters on the popular social networking site and is said to be gaining momentum against current Islamic Republic of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Omid Reza Misayafi, one of a number of Iranian bloggers arrested for "insulting" the government and religious authorities in that country, is dead. Misayafi's death was reported on Global Voices Online via an Iranian human rights site in Farsi and we learned of it from The Committee to Protect Bloggers.

No cause of death is yet known, but the Committee says torture of bloggers is common in Iran and they are usually placed in close proximity to the most dangerous criminals in any facility. Misayafi was sentenced in December to 30 months in prison "for insulting Islamic Republic Leaders." The man said he was a cultural blogger, not a political one, and only wrote a few satirical articles that got him into trouble.

Millions of young bloggers are challenging the conservative government of Iran, at great personal risk. The following "infographic" video from the Vancouver Film School tells this story powerfully in just 2 minutes.

It's reminiscent of the recent film Persepolis and helps put "social media" in a much more serious context than people often presume it goes on in.

The Iranian parliament is set to debate a draft bill that would add a number of crimes to the list of those that can result in execution, among them "establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy." Apostasy means the abandonment of a religion. The official Iranian news agency reports that the bill is intended to "toughen punishment for harming mental security in society."