Iran Twitts away to stay in touch

Social media has come of age today. For those of you whose concerns about its true potential and power weren���t satisfied by the role it played in Obama���s presidential campaign, here���s the update. Iran is up in flames over the alleged doctoring of election results.

However, the international media has largely ignored the violent rioting, peaceful protests, police brutality and government oppression as the estimated three million protesters have taken to the streets.

Perhaps because the Iranian government has blocked media and telephone networks as the country simmers on the brink of a revolution. Today, way bigger than Facebook���s endearing pink chaddi campaign, is the role played by Twitter, Flickr and Picassa in connecting outraged Iranians with the rest of the world.

Given that Twitter is Iranians��� only tenuous link to the outside world, this real-time news update is being hailed as the Twitter revolution, triumphing, by far, the virtually non-existent coverage by traditional media that has had very limited access to goings on. Glimpses of the protests against the election results, marches, rioting and stories of the complete governmental media shutdown have been flooding Twitter by people in the thick of the action as opposed to passive observers.

The Iranian government is failing in its attempts to curb news leaks through Twitter largely because of Twitter���s versatility: Tweeters can access Twitter in a variety of ways, through their cell phones, odd Wi-Fi pockets and traditional internet connections.

Though the government is tracking and closing down proxy servers emerging from Iran as soon as they surface, millions of socially-concerned netizens across the world have been posting new proxies to allow Iranians access to the internet.