Twitter is 'asymetrisch' geworden?

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Een tijdje geleden begon het Amerikaanse leger de term 'asymetrisch' te
gebruiken voor onverwachte gebeurtenissen. Bono zou dat 'laterale'
gebeurtenissen noemen?

Een eerder bericht wat ik rondstuurde gaf aan dat de mogelijkheid bestond
dat de jongeren uit de grote steden de andere jongeren, en dan natuurlijk
ook de ouderen, in de media zouden verdringen.

Is dat wat er nu gebeurd?

Groet / Cees

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/world/middleeast/17media.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
June 17, 2009
U.S. Steps Gingerly Into Tumult in Iran
By MARK LANDLER and BRIAN STELTER

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration says it has tried to avoid words or
deeds that could be portrayed as American meddling in Iran’s presidential
election and its tumultuous aftermath.

Yet on Monday afternoon, a 27-year-old State Department official, Jared
Cohen, e-mailed the social-networking site Twitter with an unusual
request: delay scheduled maintenance of its global network, which would
have cut off service while Iranians were using Twitter to swap information
and inform the outside world about the mushrooming protests around Tehran.

The request, made to a Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, is yet another
new-media milestone: the recognition by the United States government that
an Internet blogging service that did not exist four years ago has the
potential to change history in an ancient Islamic country.

“This was just a call to say: ‘It appears Twitter is playing an important
role at a crucial time in Iran. Could you keep it going?’ ” said P.J.
Crowley, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs.

Twitter complied with the request, saying in a blog post on Monday that it
put off the upgrade until late Tuesday afternoon — 1:30 a.m. Wednesday in
Tehran — because its partners recognized “the role Twitter is currently
playing as an important communication tool in Iran.” The network was
working normally again by Tuesday evening.

The State Department said its request did not amount to meddling. Mr.
Cohen, they noted, did not contact Twitter until three days after the vote
was held and well after the protests had begun.

“This is completely consistent with our national policy,” Mr. Crowley
said. “We are proponents of freedom of expression. Information should be
used as a way to promote freedom of expression.”

The episode demonstrates the extent to which the administration views
social networking as a new arrow in its diplomatic quiver. Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton talks regularly about the power of
e-diplomacy, particularly in places where the mass media are repressed.

Mr. Cohen, a Stanford University graduate who is the youngest member of
the State Department’s policy planning staff, has been working with
Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and other services to harness their reach for
diplomatic initiatives in Iraq and elsewhere.

Last month, he organized a visit to Baghdad by Mr. Dorsey and other
executives from Silicon Valley and New York’s equivalent, Silicon Alley.
They met with Iraq’s deputy prime minister to discuss how to rebuild the
country’s information network and to sell the virtues of Twitter.

Referring to Mir Hussein Moussavi, the main Iranian opposition candidate,
Mr. Crowley said, “We watched closely how Moussavi has used Facebook to
keep his supporters informed of his activities.”

Tehran has been buzzing with tweets, the posts of Twitter subscribers,
sharing news on rallies, police crackdowns on protesters, and analysis of
how the White House is responding to the drama.

With the authorities blocking text-messaging on cellphones, Twitter has
become a handy alternative for information-hungry Iranians. While Iran has
also tried to block Twitter posts, Iranians are skilled at using proxy
sites or other methods to circumvent the official barriers.

A Twitter account called IranNewsNow sent a message to CNN’s Twitter
account that read, “don’t listen to what iran gov says u can or can’t do!
You can report the pics/vids coming from Twitter!”

An account called StopAhmadi wrote on Tuesday evening, “We need ppl around
world helping to raise the issues put pressure on Iranian gvmt.” It posted
links to pictures from Tehran, including one that showed a man bleeding
profusely from his chest, surrounded by protesters.

There were also suspicions that some pro-government forces might be using
new-media outlets to send out misinformation. One popular opposition site,
Persiankiwi, warned its followers on Tuesday to ignore instructions from
people with no record of reliable posts.

In addition to Twitter, YouTube has been a critical tool to spread videos
from Iran when traditional media outlets have had difficulty filming the
protests or the ensuing crackdown. One YouTube account, bearing the user
name “wwwiranbefreecom,” showed disturbing images of police officers
beating people in the streets. On Monday, Lara Setrakian, an ABC News
journalist, put out a call for video on Twitter, writing, “Please send
footage we can’t reach!”

The BBC’s Persian-language television channel said that for a time on
Tuesday, it was receiving about five videos a minute from amateurs, even
though the channel is largely blocked within Iran. One showed
pro-government militia members firing weapons at a rally.

“We’ve been struck by the amount of video and eyewitness testimony,” said
Jon Williams, the BBC world news editor. “The days when regimes can
control the flow of information are over.”

As new media proliferate, however, traditional journalists are having a
harder and harder time.

Journalists were told on Tuesday that they could not cover protests
without permission. The restrictions “effectively confine journalists to
their offices,” a spokesman for the BBC said.

Still, many ventured out into the streets to witness pro- and
antigovernment protests, at considerable risk. At the Laleh Hotel in
central Tehran, the Time magazine columnist Joe Klein said, “A number of
journalists were coming back from the streets pretty badly beaten.”

As their visas expired, journalists were looking for any chance to report.
Jim Marshall, the last Sky News staff member in Tehran, was barred from
reporting, so he went shopping instead and came upon thousands of
supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a rally.

“I kept shopping, and they kept demonstrating,” he wrote in a blog post.
“This was turning into a test of wills. How much longer could I shop
without slipping into reporting?” Once he realized he was carrying a
notepad in his pocket, he swiftly left the scene.

Mark Landler reported from Washington, and Brian Stelter from New York.
Richard Pérez-Peña contributed reporting from New York.

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