There's some amazing news coming out of Iran's disputed election unrest via Twitter. It all needs be taken with a grain of salt clearly, as anyone could be posing as an Iranian on Twitter, but even still it's a unique window into this situation.
There's a few accounts I started following this weekend that I've found particularly interesting - many of the Iranian election accounts have become a swamp of re-tweets* but the following accounts have been posting links and commentary that is largely original.
- @persiankiwi - Ostensibly coming from inside Iran and producing a steady narrative seemingly day and night. The account links to a blog written in Farsi which Google is unable to translate, sadly.
- @TehranBureau - An organization of independent Iranian bloggers. Obviously new to Twitter given the awkward formatting of their posts but they are reporting whole stories and conversations via this account, amazing and compelling reads.
- @intrepditeacher - A resident of Qatar reporting from outside but a great filter who is providing an insightful Middle Eastern perspective on the crisis. Might be Persian himself.
- @Change_For_Iran - Possibly a university student. Amongst other amazing content, posted links to photos of the aftermath of a police attack on student protesters.
In addition to these, there's also the #IranElection and #IranElections hashtags, though these are so busy that they are the equivalent of drinking straight from the hose.
* If you're a Twitter novice, a re-tweet (or RT) is a repeat of a tweet that someone else made, allowing your followers (who aren't necessarily following the original writer) to see a tweet of particular significance. Example here.
Sorting through best (legit) tweets to follow is a feat. Thanks for making it easy, Fernando - fascinating stuff.
Posted by: Jen | 16 June 2009 at 09:57 PM