Iranian media crackdown prompts Tweets and blogs

One blogger of particular note is electronicmaji of Daily Kos, who has compiled photos and news reports on the protests (warning: some of the content is of graphic nature) and notes the parallels between the current protests and those during the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Electronicmaji also cites reports indicating that the actual election results give Mr. Mousavi between 19 and 22 million votes, compared to between 5 and 10 million votes for Ahmadinejad.

The Internet messaging service Twitter also has proven a key source of information about the Iran protests: Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb cites a comment he's seen, "Tiananmen + Twitter = Tehran," highlighting both the similarity between events twenty years ago in China's Tiananmen Square and in Tehran today and the difference that the Internet has made in how the Tehran events have unfolded.

Andrew Sullivan cites several Tweets by students and other protesters as they have come under attack by Iranian police and other security forces. German student Simon Columbus, who writes a blog called i like patterns, has compiled a list of English-language Twitter users in Iran, many of whom seem to be students or protesters.

Likely as a consequence of the online coverage, the Iranian government appears to be blocking their citizens' access to non-government coverage of the election and subsequent protests. BBC's The Editors blog reports that one of the satellites the BBC uses to broadcast its Farsi-language Persian channel to the Middle East is being jammed by interference from Iran.

According to its Twitter feed, Tehran Bureau, an independent Iranian online news organization published in English, was shut down for several hours Sunday. Tehran Bureau has since been able to restore its service.

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