Twitter, NTT America hold off maintenance to keep Iran channel clear

Credit: Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA

For a service that limits users to 140 characters, Twitter is finding its influence growing worldwide. The San Francisco company Monday delayed a crucial maintenance operation to accommodate the high volume of information flowing about the explosive election protests in Iran.

People both inside and outside Iran have been sending short text messages about the violence and civil disobedience that has engulfed the nation's capital, Tehran, for the last two days. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has defended his reelection last week, but the protests have grown more intense.

In a blog post Monday afternoon, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said his site's scheduled maintenance would be delayed from overnight -- daytime in Iran -- to 2 to 3 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday, which would be the middle of the night in Iran.

The work was "a critical network upgrade [that] must be performed to ensure continued operation of Twitter," Stone wrote. The servers that undergird the micromessaging site are run by NTT America, a division of Japanese telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Co. 

Stone noted that NTT America recognized "the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran" and was "taking a huge risk not just for Twitter but also the other services they support worldwide."

Twitter traffic about the situation in Iran has been dominating the service for the last several days, with topics such as IranElection, Tehran and Iranians among the most actively discussed on Twitter. News tidbits, photos and chatter about the protests have flowed around the world, becoming a key medium for news from the scene.

Twitter users worried that shutting down the service could cut off yet another information channel for those in Iran, where the government had reportedly blocked access to social media sites, such as YouTube and Facebook, in addition to cutting off mobile phone service.

-- David Sarno

Comments

[MrMarker]

He has done humanity a favor.

[nebben]

This Stealection is proving Twitter's worth, http://bit.ly/UVPmW.

[John Galt]

This was a great service to freedom of speech!

The regime in Iran must change. The course that they are taking with Ahmadinijad could lead to massive global war, especially if their regime continues to develop their nuclear program.

[joe]

for all you ignorant americans it was the state department that so kindly asked twitter not to shut down so they could moniter the Iranians. Twitter is the worse thing for freedom of speech. It's just another way for our governmnet to moniter exactly what you are doing. Don't use it!! EVER!!!!!

[Clint]

@Joe - Hold on there. Twitter's power to monitor a nation's thoughts is indeed a huge responsibility but not necessarily an evil tool in the right hands. It can turn a great man into a great president or an evil man into a tyrant. But aren't we all inherently good? Least that's what I believe in. Put down the gun Joe, we just want to talk. It's ok out here, the sun is coming up over the horizon, look.