Social Media Twitter, Facebook Critical in tracking Iran revolution during Foriegn Media Blackout

U.S. Officials are saying that social networking sites like Facebook and especially Twitter have been critical sources of information on the situation in Iran, especially now since foriegn media has been banned from reporting inside the country.

A senior official at the U.S. State Department has said:

“There are lots of people here watching. There are some interesting messages going up.�

U.S. officials are not saying whether they are communicating with Iranians directly, but one senior official says that the United States is gathering information through Twitter about people of interest being picked up for questioning by authorities.

After the backlash on Twitter about CNN not covering the Iran situation, the news network is now saying they are also extensively monitoring social networks as an integral part of their reporting.

The U.S. State Department is also working with the big social networking and messaging sites - requesting that they keep their sites healthy and fully functional now more than ever. For example, senior officials said the State Department asked Twitter to reschedule it’s periodic maintenance at this critical time to make sure the site is available to users.

“It is a very good example of where technology is helping.� The official said.

When it all started

It was the Saturday prior to the 14th of June that the first rumbling began to be heard moving through the Twittersphere. The rumblings of a people who felt that the election for the next Iranian president had been stolen from the people as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected. It was also during this time that it became apparent that if you wanted to find out what was happening in Iran you weren’t going to hear it from the mainstream media.

As Sunday rolled around all kinds of questions were being asked on Twitter as to why organizations like CNN weren’t providing more than just a ticker news bite at the bottom of the screen mentioning who won the election. According to what you heard / read on Twitter or a growing number of blogs, CNN and the other mainstream outlets were totally ignoring the growing Green Revolution that was beginning to roll across the Iranian landscape.

While much of the attention centered around Twitter and how it was being used to get the news in Iran out to the world it wasn’t the only Social Media tool that was being used – or misused. It turns out that Friendfeed was becoming another really popular spot for Iranians to get the news out, and because of the way Friendfeed handles conversations there was a lot of comments being made on the news. Unfortunately this isn’t something that the controlling Iranian government wanted so it blocked all access to Friendfeed from within the country

Interestingly enough just as Twitter and Friendfeed were all about getting the news out to the world it appears that YouTube was doing exactly the opposite.