Iran’s Protests Reveal What’s Lost If Twitter Crumbles

Although it isn't Iran's biggest social network, it is used to share breaking news and real-time updates. Iran is stopped from being a black hole. Grothe says that this is a crucial space for people to express themselves, to connect with friends and family, to mobilize around demonstrations, and then to hold governments to account. People on the ground are using the social networking site.

Videos and images shared by protesters have been used to illuminate the actions of the Iranian police forces. Social media data has been used to identify people killed in the protests. There is no official record of how many people have died during the protests, and only a small number of people have been identified. Thousands of people have been arrested.

Hundreds of videos of what is happening in Iran are being shared by high-profile accounts both inside and outside the country. 1500tasvir has seen its Farsi account grow from 55,000 followers to 400,000 followers. In the past two months, its account on the photo sharing website has grown from 450,000 followers to 1.7 million.

Saeed Bagheri, a lecturer in international law at the University of Reading, says that there is no independent news platform in Iran. Bagheri says that people in Iran have been sharing firsthand news about human rights violations and Islamic republics' brutality against peaceful protesters. The United Nations opened an investigation into "deadly violence against protesters" after seeing images of those who had been subjected to violence. Iranian officials said that necessary measures had been taken.

Iran's protesters and activists are not the only ones using the social networking site. Iranian state-backed actors have a history of using social media to influence politics. In June of this year, almost 5,000 accounts associated with the Iranian government were taken down. These accounts were using fake profiles to target conversations about political and social issues in Iran and globally.

One Iranian digital propaganda researcher, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said they have been watching the most popular Farsi account for months. They say accounts that seem to support the Iranian government pushed messages justifying its policies before the protests started. The accounts shared misinformation about the events after the protests began. I've never seen such a huge effort to spread false information on the Iranian social media sites. The regime did not do well in this area.

The system failed.

Protests have been organized on the social networking site. Musk's takeover of the platform and the chaotic scenes that have followed could have real-world consequences. The ability to keep people safe is included.

The Oxford Internet Institute and Alimardani say that much of Musk's time in charge has been focused on US issues despite the fact that the majority of users are from outside of the U.S. Alimardani says that Iranians don't care that Musk is attacking culture. Iran wants to get their message to the world as quickly as possible.