Report: State Dept. urged Twitter to reschedule maintenance

When Twitter rescheduled some planned downtime in order to stay accessible for Iranian users in the midst of political upheaval, it was at the request of the U.S. State Department, according to CNN.

This should not be taken to mean that the U.S. is attempting to get involved at this point, CNN added. The State Department is working with multiple social-networking and communication services to ensure that conversation and information channels stay active.

"By necessity, the U.S. is staying hands-off of the election drama playing out in Iran, and officials say they are not providing messages to Iranians or 'quarterbacking' the disputed election process," the article by CNN's Elise Labott read.

Because the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with Iran, information gathered on the Web is crucial to its understanding of the post-election unrest that has led to mass protests and fatal clashes with police. Twitter, where users have been filtering relevant information with the hashtag #iranelection, has been a crucial hotspot for raw news.

Twitter's planned maintenance, according to a post on the company's official blog, was selected by its hosting partner, NTT America. The update is "a critical network upgrade [that] must be performed to ensure continued operation of Twitter," however, so it will instead take place this afternoon when it's well after midnight in Iran.

Meanwhile, in a sort of digital twist on that famous scene in The Thomas Crowne Affair, a new viral campaign is going around Twitter: Users from around the world are resetting the location data in their profiles to Tehran, the capital of Iran, in order to confuse Iranian authorities who may be attempting to use the microblogging tool to track down opposition activity.

[mrcjacobs]

Once again the US government is putting it's hands where they shouldn't be. People don't seem to realize that this is blatant manipulation. What's next, urging a site to delay posting information that the government doesn't want released? It's slippery slope....

[eddie96terry]

mrcjacobs, while I would be inclined to agree with you on some level. I believe that in this instance it's just another case of our government getting the majority of it's intel from the media walk into any government agency and you will see TVs displaying all major news outlets; local, national, world. So yes it is a case of Big Brother using the public to rat out fellow human beings but a delay in planned maintenance so that the world can watch what is going on in Iran is a far cry from censorship.
Just goes to show that Twitter is officcially big time.

[Draq Wraith]

Perhaps thats why Barack H Obama signed a treaty with china and a few other countries restricting the rights of the press overseas.

blatant manipulation happened with the votes of the US of A. Did anyone or thing get done about it? NO!
GWB vs Al Gore Popular vote went to gore. electoral went to bush.
Then there is the phantom votes you can not verify if you loose ballots or gained too many ballots.

So these Iranians have learned how to rig the polls from us.
Remember women's vote would more than likely be thrown out because women are treated harshly.

D~W

S

D~W

[drmnys]

This is ridiculous. This once again goes to show the extent to which America & the western corporate media will stoop to promote their diabolical agenda. "Mass protests & fatal clashes with police", "political upheaval" , oh please!!!! Only 1 person has died & this is far from a political upheaval. This is just the democratic process going through its normal post election motions. Riots with hundreds of deaths occur after every election in places like India. I dont see that getting any noteworthy mention in the media.

Also whats the big deal that its being discussed on Twitter or any other social networking site. There are hundreds of blogs & social networking groups actively discussing actual important global issues. Lets take for example groups promoting the Palestinian cause that were actively discussing & exposing the recent Israeli massacre of Palestinians. But such groups are either banned by the "freedom loving" American government or bashed by the western media for promoting "Hate speech". Besides, such groups activities never get any noteworthy mention in the media, including Cnet. Why not??? I am really disappointed Cnet.

Why are people freaking out over this? It isn't censorship; it isn't a sign of some diabolical agenda. It's public diplomacy, and pretty good public diplomacy, at that: Department of State points out to a communications company that they have suddenly become important in an ongoing debate. That's the exact opposite of censorship. Is it manipulation? Sure--that's what diplomacy is! Every country does it. (Think VoA during the Cold War.) Is it bad? Absolutely not!