Internet Exploiters

In Backstory Of A Revolution: Studying Tweets, Posts from National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, we can hear a quick overview on the ways in which the use of social media made fueled a desire for more personal freedom. Mazen Nahawi from News Group International says:

It is that muscle of freedom that has been exercised on the level of one-to-one relationships – talking about your favorite sports team, choosing the product that you want, choosing to work with a company that you like or to leave a company that you don’t like. It is that psychology of freedom that created the consciousness which led people to Tahrir Square.

Many of the articles in Arseh Sevom’s online magazine look at these issues as well. Today, we are highlighting the piece Iran’s Reformists and Activists: Internet Exploiters, by Babak Rahimi and Elham Gheytanchi which examines the roots of dig­ital activism in Iran. They present cases showing the ways in which internet tech­nolo­gies have been used by reformist clerics and the women’s move­ment as a means for com­mu­ni­cating their mes­sage to a broader audi­ence and main­taining oppo­si­tion messages.