Twitter downtime gets delayed for Iranian election news

Twitter's host NTT America is postponing the downtime that was scheduled to take place late Monday night in light of all of the Twitter activity surrounding the presidential elections in Iran.

A post by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on Twitter's blog says that the maintenance will instead take place on Tuesday from 2 to 3 p.m. PST, which will be in the early morning (1:30 a.m.) for Iranian users. Stone went on to say: "Our partners are taking a huge risk not just for Twitter but also the other services they support worldwide--we commend them for being flexible in what is essentially an inflexible situation."

Iran and its controversial presidential election results continue to be the top-trending topics on Twitter. Over the weekend the service played a large role in the spread of information not only about election results, but in the aftermath that followed.

[Emergent007]

Thanks for reporting the event

We did this alltogether to help the Iranian people in this crucial moment of their history. We used #nomaintenance hashtag and went viral. Thanks to the Twitter Community, Management & Provider!

Signed @Emergent007

[wotten-1]

Thunderous applause to all who've contributed directly and/or made technical changes as necessary to ensure reportage from Iran via tweets or other means goes on. In this momentous time, it's conforting to see right-thinking actions!