Brian Stelter’s article on the front page of The New York Times foregrounds the integral role social media site Twitter is playing for Iranians during the current election aftermath.

Amidst a tumultuous political atmosphere, where authorities have blocked text-messaging on cell phones and journalistic websites, Twitter has emerged as an invaluable way for Iranian citizens to swap information about protests and demonstrations. In a remarkable move, recognizing Twitter’s invaluable role, the US State Department asked the site to postpone its scheduled maitenance in order to maintain this conduit of information for those in Iran.

This entire chain of events is fascinating to me, from the politics itself to the foregrounding of social media, and is a powerful example of how the Internet frontier—with the democritization of information and access that many seem to decry—can be an incredibly powerful venue, one that may even enable social and political movements.

In addition, Twitter has become a funnel for videos of protests and information about the elections, information otherwise banned from leaving the country. At a time when many feel the decline of print newspapers will degrade the quality of journalism, the internet—Twitter and YouTube, specifically—have filled the gaps in news-gathering that bans on traditional journalism have created. Revolutions every which way.

-Elise