Twitter: you’re either using it, annoyed by people talking about it, or don’t know what it is. Well, one thing it’s doing is help bring a voice to the voiceless in Iran. On Twitter, users utilize “hashtags” in their tweets to categorize their information. Whenever a person says something about the Iran election, for example, they stick “#iranelection” somewhere in the message. As of this writing, it is the most popular hashtag on Twitter.

Why does this matter? It has made it possible for protesters of President Ahmadinejad’s reelection to have their voice heard. There are claims of voting fraud, of the government “Photoshopping” crowds of Ahmadinejad supporters to make them look bigger, and of opposers being kidnapped, beaten by police, and then disappearing. This “microblogging”, “instant press” web service is providing a way for unfiltered information to make out to the public.

If you’d like to see what people are saying about the Iran election, just click on this hashtag: #iranelection

And what’s with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pretending like there is nothing bad happening in his country right now?  He’s in Russia and claims that the “age of empires” has come to an end, referring to America’s economic troubles after financing so many wars. It appears that, with him, the times of freedom and justice have come to an end, too.

Last 3 posts by Mark

• I lost and won my first election - March 23rd, 2010
• Seriously?! - February 17th, 2010
• Current Government Flowchart - January 29th, 2010