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Has Twitter finally found it revenue source?  Bowing to pressure from the US State Department, Twitter put off some downtime in efforts to keep their conduit open for news that is flowing out of Iran.  The recent Iranian election results have put the people in the streets demonstrating for what they believe is a fraudulent result.  Twitter has become one of the only means they are able to get information out now that the media has had its credentials revoked.

Viva la Revolution!

If you are on Twitter, then you know what has been coming through.  Things like:

• from tehran: i realize now i do not fear death… i fear my daughter will not be free when i die
• censorship silencing the voice of iranians youtube has pulled videos showing protestors
• Student dies after police shooting in isfahan university (difficult to watch) tinyurl.com/mxk84…
• from Iran:Threat CONFIRMED! Army moving into Tehran against protesters! PLEASE RT!

I am a rebel?  Bring it.

According to CBS News, I’ve become a person of interest now to the Iran Military.  According to CBS:

The Revolutionary Guard, an elite military force answering to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , said through the state news service that Iranian Web sites and bloggers must remove any materials that “create tension” or face legal action.

Why Twitter?

Why not Facebook or email or personal websites to convey the points of view flowing out of locked down Iran?  Twitter is free, fast, and very personal.  Iran is working hard to block IP addresses as fast as they can identify them and Twitter allows users to be pretty ubiquitous. 

Like many of the things on Twitter, you can’t trust it all.  There is rampant accusations of the government sponsoring mis-information as well as the opposition dabbling in much of the same.

How can Twitter turn this into something?

Certainly I am not suggesting that Twitter make money off the people fighting in the streets for a fair election.  But what I am suggesting is this: if the government calls me up and says, “hey JG, we really like the job you do on Halloween.  You pass out the best selection of candy this side of the Mississippi and we’d like you to continue passing out candy, starting tonight, until we says stop.”  As my Econ professors loved to jabber on about, there is no free lunch.

The State Department didn’t go to Verizon.  They didn’t go to Microsoft.  They didn’t ask Gadgetell to keep the site going.  They went to Twitter, the little dynamo that could.  Yesterday I saw a comment that Internet has become as important to modern life as bread and water.  Has Twitter just become the same?

Read: [Time.com]