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I am listening to Inbound Marketing University's (IMU) Tuesday webcast on "Social Media and Building Community" and keeping an eye on twitter, which in the last week has become a major part of the resistance movement in Iran, following the hotly contested Presidential elections and accusations of fraud from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The lack of coverage by major media outlets including CNN and Fox sparked outrage among supporters of the opposition, who started using Twitter to let the world know about the massive demonstrations on the streets of Tehran and the repression by Ahmadinejad's regime.

As the lecturer in IMU's webcast describes how social media and communities cannot be "managed" and instead they should be supported, his words strongly resonate with the current events in Iran. The resistance movement has put enough pressure on mainstream media, who are now following the events in Iran. In response, Ahmadinejad has prohibited foreign correspondents to cover the massive demonstrations and the violent repression used against them. However, real time news continue sweeping over Twitter, with more people from all over the world joining every day.

One of my favorite tweets links to Cyberwar guide for Iran elections, a guide to "help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through Twitter".

This is probably the first time a movement will shape the future of a nation through Twitter. The significance of these events are difficult to grasp while they are still happening, but they will surely have a huge impact in the future of Iran and the Middle East, as well as in defining the role social media has in empowering people and democratic movements.

Update on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 3:15PM by Raul

Thought I'd share some links to follow up on the Iran post election Cyberwar:

• Iran: Twitter Users' Outrage at CNN, Fox Triggers Coverage, By David Weir, posted June 15th, 2009 on BNET Media
• UPI Post-Election Riots in Iran (pictures)
• Cyberwar guide for Iran elections
• Salon.com War Room by By Alex Koppelman, Iran post election real-time coverage (includes timeline of events)

Update on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 4:16PM by Raul

How relevant is Twitter for democracy and Iran's election process? From Mashable: U.S. Government Asks Twitter to Stay Up for #IranElection Crisis.

Twitter was scheduled to go down for maintenance last night but according to Mashable (original source: CNN), with millions taking to the streets to protest election results and the press kicked out of Iran, the State Department asked Twitter to reschedule their maintenance window so that the flow of communication was not interrupted.