Google, Facebook: Revolution Over?

Update: Not familiar with this group - Global Voices Advocacy. It claims that many bloggers have been arrested.

As protesters continue their demonstrations all over Iran against 12th June presidential election results, Iranian authorities have arrested hundreds of activists, including bloggers.

There's confusion in Iran as state radio is claiming that protests planned for today have been called off by moderate clerics. That contradicts a political aide from yesterday. A senior police commander's statement sounds ominous:

Khamenei's warning was reinforced by a senior police commander who said that "beginning today any gathering critical of the election would be illegal and police will deal with it firmly and with determination."

Iran's state broadcaster said a group of moderate clerics had called off a planned protest rally in Tehran on Saturday against disputed election results because no permission had been granted.

The announcement, hours before the rally was due to go ahead at 4 p.m. (7:30 a.m. EDT), contradicted a statement from an aide to one of the defeated election candidates who earlier said the rally would go ahead.

In light of the on going protests in Iran, Google has added Farsi to its translation tool and Facebook has launched a version of their service in Persian. The Facebook blog credits over 400 Persian speakers for providing the translations. If Google's translation tool works, the headline above says, Google, Facebook: Revolution Over?

See Google, Facebook article here.

To help Iranians communicate directly to the world in the wake of the growing protests in the country, Google has unveiled a Farsi translation service, while Facebook has launched a version of its site in Persian.

The Internet has played a key role in allowing some Iranians to communicate since last week's disputed presidential elections, and many international media outlets have used services like Twitter and emails in their coverage, The Telegraph reports.

Update: I spelled out revolution in the header as the farsi characters were not displaying correctly in some aps causing a problem.

Comments

[lala]

Found this -

"All week, Internet users in the U.S. and around the world fixed their eyes on the events unfolding in Iran, the way viewers might have been glued to their television sets 30 years ago. But unlike 30, or even five years ago, this time they could participate.

"Even if we can't help directly, this is a way of helping indirectly," said Ian Souter, 24, an unemployed computer animator in Lafayette, Ind.

He and other U.S. Web users set up ways for Iranians to access the Internet using Tor, a service that allows people use the Internet anonymously.

Even the file-sharing site Pirate Bay, best known for its run-ins with the law over copyright infringement, has jumped in with the launch of a network that helps Iranians surf anonymously."

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/061909/loc_452653750.shtml