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Twitter, Facebook, and the Iranian Election
May 15, 2009 6:30 PM
ABC's Lara Setrakian Reports:
In reporting out a piece for ABC News Digital we stumbled upon two surprising twitter accounts: one for Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and another for Fmr Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi running for president against Ahmedinejad in this, the Persian election year of 1388.
While we've been cautioned that it's difficult to beat an presidential incumbent in Iran, Ahmedinejad is facing his stiffest competition from Mousavi -- a "soft-reformer" and political heir to former President Khatami. Mousavi has made significant use of the internet and other technologies to mobilize his young, urban base (yes, he made a YouTube video). He is playing to a significant youth vote -- 70% of Iran's population is under 30 -- and if he can overcome their deep voter apathy Mousavi will get a major boost on June 12.
Another point on votes and technology: Iran lifted its ban on Facebook this February, giving way to a flood of new users in the Islamic Republic (Facebook rose to the 10th most popular site in that country of 70 million) Savy urbanites always had access, passing around software for proxy servers, but this was a new and widespread access. Cynics say the incumbent hardliners unblocked Facebook to soften their image with young voters; or that Iran has now figured out how to monitor the site and so has allow free access.
Khamenei's Twitter posts are all in Persian. A friend and I worked out some translations, and they're mostly his speeches and whereabouts of the past few weeks -- meetings in Iran's Kurdistan province, hiking in mountainous Sanandaj, etc. Similar fare to Khamenei's blog.
May 15, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (2)
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if the ceo's and the chairmen and board members didn't have to have such payouts and returns when all they do is play golf or take personal vacations, etc. maybe the airlines would be safer and the pilots would have the right training, a nice bed paid for by the airlines. and a decent paycheck.
Posted by: karen | May 15, 2009 6:54:37 PM
karen, you're posting in the wrong place.
As for this article, I hope the Iranian people do not reelect their current jerk of a prez. He has to go if they want to clean-up their image to the rest of the world.
Posted by: GWP | May 18, 2009 7:14:26 AM
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