Twitter Users And The #IranElection

Twitter appears to be turning green today, for some users anyway, as many regulars on the microblogging site are changing their user icons to a new hue to mark their support of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi and Iran's protesters

As Iran's election drama plays out this week, supporters organized in modern fashion: With Web sites and services such as Twitter, Flickr, YouTube Facebook and Google Maps. At the moment, the subject header "#IranElection" is one of the top discussion topics on the service.

"My friends are being held against their will in the university," wrote one Twitter user. "Rasoul Akram hospital has medics outside. Go there for help," wrote another. Others uploaded pictures and videos of alleged police violence against protesters.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone blogged on Monday that some previously scheduled maintenance for the site was being delayed as a result of the situation in Iran. According to one report, the delay came after State Department officials asked Twitter to keep its service operational.

Twitter users blasted CNN over the weekend for not covering the election controversy enough. Others were alarmed to see that some media accounts of the Twitter communities' discussions of Iran were including the site's user names, and possibly putting some users in Iran in jeopardy.

By Mike Musgrove  |  June 16, 2009; 1:25 PM ET  | Category:  Mike Musgrove
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