Social Media and the Iranian Election

I've had some time now to reflect on what we saw here at Buzzient with the recent Iranian election.

First of all, I was amazed at how quickly the social media community jumped on this issue and instead of being passive, became very active.

Second, I observed that the "digital resistance" organized very quickly, into self-managed and led groups. These folks put together proxy server lists, changed their posting locations to Tehran, whatever it took to add themselves to the legion of those wanting the results challenged. This resistance also took it a bit far with DDOS attacks and otherwise, but it was fascinating to see how quickly the partizans formed.

Last, I have to admit I felt proud that Buzzient's product, Buzzient Enterprise, was able to monitor Twitter in real time and create a social network of who was posting about the election. We've subsequently had more than a few requests to share the data, but we're going to err on the side of extreme caution here, as we don't want to endanger any of the people involved. That being said, it is remarkable to see how technology can enable both the resistance to political impropriety(suspected, not confirmed) as well as inform the casual observer.