US asks Twitter to stay online because of Iran vote
NEW YORK (AFP) - The Obama administration took the unusual step of asking Twitter to delay a planned maintenance outage because of the social blogging site's use as a communications tool by Iranians following their disputed election, a senior official said Tuesday.
The request highlighted the administration's Web-savvy ways and the power of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook in organizing protests over the election results in the face of a ban by Iranian authorities on other media.
But it also seemed to run counter to President Barack Obama's public efforts not to appear to be meddling in Iran's internal affairs.
Twitter delayed Monday's scheduled tuneup, which would have taken place during daylight hours in Iran, and rescheduled it for Tuesday. The site went down around 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) for what was expected to be about an hour.
A State Department official in Washington said Twitter had been asked to delay Monday's shutdown because the micro-blogging service was being used as "an important means of communications" in Iran.
The official told reporters on condition of anonymity that Twitter was all the more important because the Iranian government had shut down other websites, cell phones, and newspapers.
"One of the areas where people are able to get out the word is through Twitter," the official said. "They announced they were going to shut down their system for maintenance and we asked them not to."
The US official said he did not know who at the State Department called Twitter but it was not Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in a blog post that Twitter had delayed plans to temporarily shut down the service for "critical" maintenance but did not mention any State Department intervention.
Another Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, speaking at a two-day conference in New York on Tuesday about the micro-blogging service, did not mention the State Department request but said Twitter was "delaying much overdue scheduled downtime so we would not interrupt what's currently unfolding in Iran."
Dorsey described the usage of Twitter by Iranians as "amazing."
"Just think about what's occurring over there and the accessibility that we all have to see this unfold in real time," he said. "It's amazing. It's huge."
"Suddenly everything that's happening over there feels extremely close," he said. "It feels approachable. And that's really important and that is really the greatest success of what Twitter is."
"If ever there was a time that Twitter mattered it was this past weekend in Iran," added Jeff Pulver, organizer of the 140 Character Conference.
Protestors in Iran on Monday used Twitter for battle cries and to spread word about clashes with police and hardline supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Messages posted on the micro-blogging service, some with links to pictures, streamed from Iran despite reported efforts by authorities there to block news of protests over Ahmadinejad's claim of having been fairly re-elected.
Pictures of wounded or dead people that senders claim were Iranian protestors ricocheted about Twitter and wound up posted at online photo-sharing websites such as Flickr as well as on YouTube.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters that officials at the State Department had been in contact with Twitter throughout the weekend, but did not make clear that it was about the aftermath of the Iranian elections.
When asked if such talks with Twitter could be seen as interference in Iran's affairs, he said Obama and other officials were very clear they want to stay out of Iranian politics.
"We don't want to be seen as interfering," he said.
Obama himself issued the same message Tuesday, saying, "It is not productive, given the history of US-Iranian relations to be seen as meddling -- the US president, meddling in Iranian elections."
Kelly went on to say that the new media provided a good source of information for the US government, which has had no diplomatic relations with Iran for three decades.
"We're of course monitoring the situation through a number of different media, including social media networks like Facebook and Twitter," Kelly said.
-------
In Its Rush To Offer A Persian Version, Did Facebook Violate Its Terms Of Service?
5 Comments
by Leena Rao on June 19, 2009
Yesterday evening, Facebook hurriedly launched a Persian (Farsi) version of the site for users in Iran. Following the past week’s events surrounding the Iranian elections and subsequent protests, Facebook felt that there was an immediate need to provide a Farsi version of the social network as an act of solidarity with the citizens of that country.
But this recent move may be in violation of Facebook’s own terms of service. Clause 4.3 of Facebook’s terms of service states, “You will not use Facebook if you are located in a country embargoed by the U.S., or are on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals.”
According to the U.S. Department of State, there are some existing trade embargoes on Iran. But there are also embargoes and sanctions against other countries, including Sudan, Syria, and others which seem to have Facebook users in their respective countries. We also heard anecdotally from someone who lives in Cuba that Facebook can be used in there as well, although the U.S. has strict embargoes against Cuba.
Facebook doesn’t specify what exactly it means by “embargoes” (trade embargo or arms embargo, or both) or how strictly this rule is followed. As Facebook’s popularity grows internationally, perhaps the social network should take another look at its terms of service. Other Web companies such as AOL, Microsoft, and Google are reportedly banning users in embargoed countries from using instant messaging and other software.
But Facebook may have a way out. It can apply for a a special export license if it can argue that its service promotes “independent activity intended to strengthen civil society,” which is a rule that is used with Cuba, according to Department of Commerce guidelines.
We’ve contacted Facebook for a comment. We will update as soon as we hear back.
No comments:
Post a Comment