How Twitter-Based Was Iran's Twitter Revolution?

Writing in Foreign Policy, Golnaz Esfandiari disputes the popular notion that Iranian activists relied heavily on Twitter during the recent protests. Mehdi Yahyanejad, the manager of a popular Farsi-language website, said as much to the Washington Post last year: “Here [in the U.S.], there is lots of buzz,” he said. “But once you look, you see most of it are Americans tweeting among themselves.” Esfandiari points out that “good old-fashioned word of mouth was by far the most influential medium used to shape the post-election opposition activity.” Twitter also enabled the spread of various rumors and hoaxes – proof perhaps that the service isn’t quite ready to overthrow journalism? [%comments]