You’ve no doubt heard of the recent Iranian “election” and the subsequent uprising that followed. Hundreds of thousands of protesters are currently in the streets of Iran fighting for their voices to be heard after Ahmadinejad won what appeared to be a “landslide” victory against Mirhossein Mousavi. Regardless of whether or not the election of Mousavi would change our relations with Iran for the better, the United States and other countries around the world are watching as the fate of a nation is decided.

Unfortunately, Iran has been described as a “black hole” of information, as western journalists are no longer allowed in the country and most forms of communication, specifically on the Internet, have been barred from the public.

Except Twitter.

Yeah, they forgot about Twitter. So did I, actually, but it just keeps popping up in the news. It’s everywhere.

Anyway, most of our information about the Iranian uprising (or I suppose it should be called unrest) is being collected through Twitter. The U.S. State Department even asked that maintenance on the social network be postponed until this mess is over:

…a 27-year-old State Department official, Jared Cohen, e-mailed the social-networking site Twitter with an unusual request: delay scheduled maintenance of its global network, which would have cut off service while Iranians were using Twitter to swap information and inform the outside world about the mushrooming protests around Tehran. – With a Hint to Twitter, Washington Taps Into a Potent New Force in Democracy

Compelling.

I don’t know where all of this is going, or if Twitter will ultimately prove to be a useful tool in the spread and growth of democracy (and, I guess, journalism), but in times like these you take what you can get.