Iran Embodies Importance Of New Media, Say Experts

New media websites, like Twitter and Facebook, are more important than ever in Iran since the country’s troubled election, said communication experts during a panel discussion Tuesday afternoon.

“If the regime [in Iran] cracks down, if it continues to crack down, and it continues to close the door to foreign media, Iranians will most probably rely more on the new media,” said Setareh Derakhshesh, a news anchor of Voice of America’s Persian News Network.

Due to the dangers of using some new media websites enforced by the Iranian government, the website Tor has become extremely popular in the country. Tor helps users create more anonymity on the Internet. According to Andrew Lewman, the executive director of Tor, Iran went from being Tor’s seventy-fifth most popular country to its fifteenth most popular country over the night of Iran’s elections.

“It’s nice to think that people in Iran want to get the news out [by using new media]…it’s a lot more plausible in our mind that they’re doing it to share information [about checkpoints and patrols],” said Lewman.