Iranians’ Use of Social Media Shows New Political Power Of The Web, Says Expert

By Laura Woodhead – Talk Radio News Service

The Iranian protester’s that are using social networking sites such as Twitter are demonstrating “the empowerment of e-democracy for the first time” according to Ravi Singh, CEO and founder of ElectionMall Inc.

Singh, whose technology company provides, as he describes it, a “one stop shop for political campaigns to generate awareness over the web”, feels that the use of social networking as a tool for political change is a “historic development” that shows the “merger of technology, social media and politics.”

“What we are seeing right now is a phenomenal behavior where people have become educated with these new tools, ” said Singh. He added that this new form of media is “in essence the new weapon for democracy, literally causing an e-revoloution on the ground.”

“A true internet revolution can only happen when we actually see a grassroots participation in those countries, and what we are seeing is a new kind of grassroots which is basically being empowered by the internet.”

Responding to a question regarding the authenticity of some social networking media, Singh acknowledged that this is a concern.

“Content is being questioned because we have no kind of validation…there has to be some kind of third party validation and I think what we will have to do is not ‘best practices’ but some kind of ethical standards on what we will take as true and right in real time”

“I would encourage the founders of Twitter to think of authenticating some of the content that is going on as well as the validity of the profiles. Unfortunately technology companies do not really think about how there applications will change the world” he said.

You can listen to an clip from Talk Radio News Service’s interview with Ravi Singh by clicking the audio link. (0:34)

 

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