First – Fire David Letterman
then tweet all you like

Are you serious?

@gilby-Hi ....stfu. No one cares about David Letterman. He made a bad joke, get over it, he's not going to be fired.

Get rid of the criminal Mullahs ; Mullahs only care about money and power not the Iranian people. I'd like to see a new revolution to toppled them and execute them just like they did to the Sha's regime 30 years ago

This is going on in the world and all you care about is David Letterman?

That's sad. You are a sad example of a human being.

Please don't cloud this important subject with David Letterman comments. I'm sure he's offended hundreds of people in his career, it's basically his job – don't cry about it now.

Twitter has been snowballing into a force to be reckoned with but access to it by Iranians is quickly being pinched. Twitter can postpone it's maintenance all it wants but on-the-ground tweeters are struggling to stay connected. Iran is working to block just about everything – including webmail and other mediums of communication.

In all honesty Twitter has more news on Iran than the news media here does! That is a shame!! I looked all over CNN all weekend and never heard a word about it until Sunday morning after Twitter and others on the net had called CNN out about it.

I hope the people in Iran can keep on telling us what is going on. I'd hate for them to get shut off and then the protests to turn violent when the Iranian government attacks them for trying to speak out.

Cindy..Ga.

Twitter went from social experiment to an inestimable dynamic tool. The world is changing- people are changing with it... amazing what social media is capable of- it shows just how much Americans CARE about the world. Twitter lets us get involved, let's us help.

@Gilby – Don't hijack

This is a good move by the state department in my opinion.

Nationwide Legalization? Perhaps not anytime soon. Now I am all for it but, Obama already has his legacy as being the first African American President .He is smart as hell, and well spoken. Aside from your political views, how can you not like the guy? Do you think he wants to add to his resume “the legalization of Marijuana”? Our Politicians are running a business. The debate here is not weather Marijuana is safe or not, it’s the bottom line $$$$ . Don’t you think our lawmakers know how many people a year die from addictions and overdoses to prescription medications, tobacco, and alcohol? Of course they do. The problem is that Marijuana industry does not have the budget to offer politicians a trip to Europe in a G5,renovate their house on Nantucket, or get their unusually weird looking kid a role on “One life to live”.
Lets press the issue on Taxation. It is now time for activists to become salespeople and show our government how they can get theirs. This is one of the best business decisions they could make. Do we want this profit to go to Guerilla Ops funded by Mexican Cartels? They certainly are not impacted by our recession. In fact they are thriving. Its not going away ,the demand is here! We will continue to get it where we can , everywhere but Uncle Sam This is our biggest cash crop and we don’t have our hands in the cookie jar. This stuff is grown here, packaged here , and sold here. However we are not running the show. Yea guys,….go ahead, just give them more reason to come running across the border illegally. What a joke

@Gilby:

People are dying in the streets for freedom. A late night talk show host made a joke.

Glad you have your priorities straight.

Real smart State Dept. You just signed a death warrant for Iranian bloggers. For all of the Iranians who, every time they protest, have to hear "American Agent", you just made it that much easier.

PLease help the Iraninans. These poor souls are the descendents of the Persian civilization, which established the first declaration of human rights some 2500 years ago.

We are getting emails and calls from Iran asking UN or US or Europe to intervene and help. The young are educated and believe that international intervention is necessary. The protester do not have guns, the new pictures coming out are showing the security police nad the undercovers carrying and using their guns.

If president Obama does not want to get involved, why doesn't UN send and envoy?? This is a human rights issue.
All these protestors are openminded religious people. "God is great" is their Slogan . Where are the world religious leaders? Why don't the world religious leaders get involved? Where is the vatican ? Where is the Pope?

The government of Iran has been treating the religious minorities, the women, and the intellectuals in this manner for many years. Now they are committing the same injustices towards the ordinary citizens too.
They are all crying for help.
Pleeease help them.
These are very sad days for the human race.

This isn't about that stupid joke...or the whining...this is REAL!

It's fine the US is observing, but do not get involved. If you believe in global democracy, consider this: the USA has about 5% of the earth's population; democracy is about the will of the majority–5% does not a majority make! Obama's foriegn policy, I believe is greatly superior to the laughable Bush admin.'s but I also think theat Statecraft is something the USA needs to learn if it wishes to be a world leader again. Good Luck Pres. Obama, we need your compassion. Tom

the State department changed the downtime? Really? Or was it all the tweeters that contacted NTT American (Twitter's provider) that convinced them to do maintenance at 1:30am Tehran time. Maybe a bit of both.

i should know better than to dignify the above comment with a response, but seriously? people in iran are fighting for their freedom and all you can do is dwell on a stupid joke? get over yourself.

The people of the USA love the people of Iran. We would like to have an open diagloge with these wonderful people who want a free country. So many in America are standing in solidarity with the Iranian people who want change and feel there votes were not counted.

Wow, firing a late night talk host is more important than receiving information from a country deep in a political revolution, in need of help.

Is it really more important? Really now? People in America need to get out of this prolonged apathy and indifference. It's sickening.

And Anderson, you, Amanpour and Fareed are the only people who are reliable when it comes to news coming from Iran on CNN. Keep it coming, I have lost all hope for other news outlets.

Please stop posting names of Iranian twitterers on TV. I realize some of the big name ones are already known, but if we could keep some voices as anonymous as possible, it would be nice. take care of it, AC

I have been following @persiankiwi to get news from Iran. It has been fascinating to read his tweets as well as a powerful reminder of how important freedom and the right to choose is for people around the world.

I should think the "American Agent" charge would at this point ring false...
After all, this is not necessarily a march for anything more than confronting a despotic regime that has-according to documents- issued a fatwah commanding that the election skew to the incumbent. That is an injustice wherever it may occur.

Please see youtube letter to the world. it is done by an artist out of iran on exile. please show it on your show. we need help from U.S.

Twitter has been more useful in this entire ordeal for iranians like me than any of you spineless scum in the main stream media. shame on you for not reporting the real news and showing how my people are dying for their freedom while you spinless hacks talk about nothing

Thank You!

Stop posting Iranian twitter names!!!
Please take down or at least censor that comment made by Leonore Hollowell. Thank you.

@Susan B: I second the compliment to the few CNN personnel that are on the ball. Don't know what's happened to CNN in general. NY Times is doing a better-than-most job as well.

As for the names of twitterers: The guys with ImaDinnerJacket are known to be monitoring. Any twitter contributor in Iran should already be using nontraceable nom de plume. Several of the most reliable and important twitter accounts were just created this week, presumably by bright people who thought of this possibility ahead of time.

Keep it going, AC!

Twitter has to take care Iranian twitter,dont show their names.They live in lawlost area,but they are the only, who can tell the rest of the world,whats going on in Iran.I pray for this tuff people.

For those of you complaining about the lack of coverage, it's because Iranian officials have banned all foreign media coverage.

Enough Iran! Two or three minutes at the top of the show, then move on please. There's other news out there and I'd like to know what it is.
If you're trying to show that muslims resort to violence when they lose an election to someone who is all about violence, we get it.
Violence and Islam. Violence violence violence. What else is new? Well, it's your job to tell us...

Love that the people of Iran have technology to keep the rest of the world informed!

Information is power!

Keep fighting for your freedom, Iran!! YES YOU CAN!

@ Susan B.......... Well said!

CNN can be completely oblivious sometimes: I remember this one time 25,000 protested in downtown Atlanta, 2 blocks away from CNN. Not one camera and all 'Mole-Boy' could do was make tea bagging jokes.

I remember when CNN did the news and the internet did the phallic comedy. I guess I'm getting old.

Oh great. thanks so much.

Finally the US Governemtn makes the right move, There is hope after all. For the first time in a long time, I'm actually impressed. Good to see some good ideas coming from the executive sector.
*thumbs up.*

Where else can you get CNN, Fox, NPR and real people providing real-time updates? Twitter! Even if you don't like it or don't get the craze, for something as meaningful and substantial as what's going on in Iran right now, the social sites are the way to keep up and ahead. The tweets from inside Iran are amazing.

Let's hope they don't hire the same consultants that communist China uses to advise them on how to block everything, or lets hope they don't ask companies in America to censure these tools because some alleged American companies will be more than happy to oblige for the right price. China was able to get Google to censure for it's communist government cutting off information for the Chinese people.

Mr. Cooper,

I appreciated your commentary late last night on the situation in Iran, however, I must echo the concerns of Ben. Last night, you showed a Twitter page of a now-known Iranian Tweeter. However, I do believe that showing that name is just further proof of Americans' ignorance to other countries and how they operate.

Iranians are not safe. We've seen the footage, the pictures, and many Tweeters, such as myself, are constantly refreshing their Twitter pages to hopefully hear from our Iranian brothers and sisters and pray that they are ok. Posting their names publicly puts them in danger. There are quite a few Iranian Tweeters who have disappeared after their names went public.

What you can do is to censor those names. Iran is not free like the United States is free. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press aren't a concept the Iranian government seems to hold in high regards. But we have to keep in mind that there are real people down there right now, reporting to us when our journalists can't due to the ban of foreign media. We should not be responsible for putting their lives in jeopardy. They are putting their own lives in jeopardy simply recounting their experiences to the outside world. Let's not make it worse for them.

Iranian people are eager for freedom and want to get rid of the brutal Clerics, USA is not helping enough, Hussein Obama is coward.

Cool. (So cool.)

First ensure that Twitter stays up
Then give Letterman a huge raise

Didn't Anderson just have a good laugh over Charles Barkley calling the "tweeters" losers a couple of weeks ago?

Well, all of those "losers" tweeting from Iran are some of the only people getting the information out of the country.

Good luck to those brave souls!

People have been begging CNN to immediately quit reporting with usernames from Twitter. As reported in this piece, individuals are being arrested and questioned due to exposure – intentional or otherwise.

There was someone above in a comment who posted a twitter name in their post. Moderator, please remove immediately and insure that their safety is protected b not being stupid about what is said.

As many have said the Iranian govt is watching twitter and the news sites and are shutting down those whose names are being broadcast and disseminated out there.

Users have been asked to remove the tweeter's username from ReTweets to protect their identity.

I am so worried about the Iranian situation because of the consequences it may have for the world if power gets into the wrong hands. Please protect Iranian twitters identities. They are the real heroes and kudos to the U.S. State Dept. for finally being strategically savvy in their handling of the Iranian political standoff.

I'm skeptical of any "movement" composed largely of students.

Regardless of the country in question, they're unlikely to be representative of the population as a whole.

Thank you so much State Department! Best thing for Americans to do (besides pray for the freedom seekers in Iran) now is ensure that there is some sort of communication inside Iran (as the regime has clamped down on other forms of communication), and support the democratic process.

Other than that, please do not make any inflammatory comments or take sides in the matter, this will only play in the hands of the regime in Iran. The governemnt in Iran will try to delegitmize these grievances and protests, and lie and say they are rooted in foreign interests and intervention. Which is nonsense.

God Bless the People of Iran and the United States of America!

Cooper, remove this item. It is being used on Tweeter to show Western influence of events in Iran. Use your head.

Agree with the above comment. Please, please keep their names anonymous. The government will find them and it will end their fight for freedom.

Yes, because the CIA has to instruct the 'opposition' on where to strike next.

Please stop naming Iranian nics on air...

@Cindy – Couldn't have said it better myself ... especially now with the crackdown of traditional media, the net is now quickly becoming the only source of real-time news coming from Iran.

Can we have CNN do a poll among the NEO NAZI supporters to see what political they belong to. I heard some repu

It's refreshing that technology and online behavior are being recognized for something good for once. Thanks Anderson

There are so many young people in this country supporting the young people of Iran. We are watching and we won't let you be forgotten. Everyone's got green on. Keep fighting for your rights! America loves you and supports you!

It's actually a terrible move by State. Twitter users were the ones that pushed the original maintenance schedule back to help the Iranians, there's no need for the State Department to pipe up and say anything. The White House, The State Department, and especially the CIA should stay away. The reasons should be obvious.

if you had better sources for this it wouldn't be only posted in a blog right?

The US and all the rest of the world should watch without interfering. If the people of Iran want a revolution, let them have it. If they don't want a revolution, let them not have it. Madeleine Albright, who was once Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, once said, "In 1953 the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular Prime Minister, Mohammed Massadegh. The Eisenhower Administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons; but the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs." Let's not do this again – keep America and the rest of the world out of Iranian politics. Just let Iranians solve their own problems. We don't need another "alliance of the willing" to start another war in the middle east.

Venezuela will give Iran all the aid it needs.

This is good news and probably the best thing that the US government can do to help Iranians at the moment

And Twitter is down....

Keep the pressure on Iran!

Thank you , Dave. And one more thing for CNN, please do not announce Twitter's names because, again, the reasons should be even more obvious – you're risking their lives.

While it is true, freedom in a battle fought by those seeking it, let us stay out of it. With the state department working to ensure the tweets keep tweeting is that not an issue Iran can now say the US was involved in the violence.

We have our own issues of major concern and the butter pat is mortaged to China and back, so work on issues that address Americans and let the other nations resolve their own political uprising.

There are Arab speaking gards who are in front of protestors, after talking to my reletives in Iran.

Remember the top news a few days ago, gas prices, David Letterman. Oh remember the banks and Gmc. Remember all that.

I'm 31 years old IRANIAN living in L.A.
Do you really believe that what is happening in IRAN now is for real, look this is exactly government plan, now they will recount the votes or they will do the election all over again at the end Mir Hussein will be president and the will give the word finger,” did you see that our country have a democracy and people deiced for the government”, but after 6 month you will find out who is real “Mir Hussein “

please hide my identity for safety
Thank you

I read something on this site that said that the Iranian-Americans are logging on and taking to the streets to protest..Many of us that are on Twitter from the US are from all races..I'm not Iranian..I am black and I was one of them to change the twitter display to green and one of the many Americans that care and are staying updated with all that is happening..Its true I've seen more on Twitter than CNN....We all of many races..and religions..are behind the people of Iran..the election was unjust..and something needs to change here..How long are they going to let people get killed and beat..just because they are trying to have a voice..This is going too far....These people matter and they should be respected..

They don't get it..its not just people in Iran speaking..All of America is speaking out too...every second..every minute..We hear you Iran..I was told that Youtube was taking down videos of photos and so on from Iran...they are trying to take the evidence down about whats happening over there and its wrong..Let them speak...don't shut them out

I would like to thank these social networks and the State Department for their support of our movement. I wish they could do something to help us fight the growing internet censorship and bypass the filters to be able to access the news.

This is the response that I received from my cousin in Iran about what is going on there right now. These are his words directly from Iran about the current situation. I will continue to post whatever he sends me. If you know of a better place where I can post these up-dates please reply to my message with your suggestions. Thank you!

"well of course it's like hell here. all tension, all stress, all anticipation 4 what's to come next. they have told us a big lie and we're fighting for it. all young people are chanting slogans every single day, demonstrating; peacefully of course. the thing is they've made everything as tight as possible. the media's almost blocked. the sms service is off and the telephone's are even one and off. they are trying to suffocate the whole thing internationally, even domestically. but we are trying our best not to let them. since the communication system is rather limited, false notifications run around, one day they announce a false demonstration/rally place and everyone's surprised. it's not good. not good at all.

of course despite all this our daily lives are going on. but we're not gonna let them off easy for sure! if you guys can just spread the word as much as possible about the truth! they are beating up and trying to scare the hell out of us. they are killing MANY everyday without anyone even noticing it. of course PEOPLE ARE LIVING EVERY MOVE and are not gonna let gpo easy.

as for us, we're all fine and are trying not to get deep into trouble. maybe now it's the wise thing to do. but god knows if it's still the same in the following week.

Bob is okay. he's out everyday of course but don't worry he's too TARSOO to be caught or anything. vali we are trying and trying.

as a matter of fact, 2nite all the uncle's are gathering here along with Mo. he's a bit worried but I'm sure we can chill him a bit at least

anyhow...I'll keep U updated azizam.
say hi to everyone and let all the Iranian's out there know what's goin on. we can sure as hell use their support!

kissiz"

yupp. we've been getting really good coverage from local iranians with contacts in iran from cbc and bbc. was surprised to hear about people venting on cnn's lack of coverege on the dissention from the grassroots public in iran (especially as people in the cities and the villages are all holding public rallies), until i saw it on tv and then some online articles (i.e. slate) bashing cnn's coverage. considering i watch cnn 24/7 i didn't see the big deal, lol, probably because unlike i guess people in the u.s. i can switch to cbc, citytv, bbc...and any number of news station on tv or radio and get good reporting. this whole event has been in the making, and i am glad that iranians are rising up to challenge their complex idea of democracy especially as they are inbetween post-theocracy/revolution to becoming psuedo democratic/democratic in many aspects of their society with unions and representational factions among themselved. i don't think this is about the three opposition leaders at all...am glad moussavi cleared that up. i think they legitamately have a righ to be angry. i also hope the reporters are keeping safe. i know the government issued out more passes than usual and we have a lot of local reporters from here over there. they're in the business and know protocol but i can't help but be scared for them in this situation. good on all these guys getting proactive about their politics. i wonder if they are going to do the double deal on khomeini.

Take Lenore Hollowell's entry off your site!!!!!! (18 up)

She just endangered the people who use that address and all the followers. You could get them all killed.

Don't post

The whole world has gone nuts....

jimy carter again.wow , he was president in 1979 this happen in iran .again he is in mideleast.you know what i mean.where is your bliding hart for iranian peopel .yes i am talking to you amercan people .they are geting kild and you are talking gays and fags in this country

The reporting on this basically so far so good,but lacking for all sorts of reasons including censorship In Iran and apparently by its government, leads me to comment.
I would in a way like a return to the old times when often we did not have this huge coverage of another sovreign states actions or elections, and did not know.
On the other hand we now do know ( and the media seem to disrespect thier underlying obligations to be fair, balanced, legal, honest, decent and truthful.)
This obligation due to technology has increased geometrically and doing your responsibility therefore more than geometrically. Life is tough.
I think it is great that we are better informed.
What I do not like is individual governments ( sovreign states) espousing their sovreign interests thru what they say to the media or otherwise.
These should be taken up internationally via the UN not by individual nations ( the UN constitution needs revising and vetoes removed) and neither the EU or America or China or Russia, should dictate policy on what to do about Iranian elections, only decide whether the system ( with monitoring) is appropriate for each nation.
That by the way is why Iraq has been the huge issue it is as the US wanted final say how that sovreign state should in future be run.
Regards,
Hodgson.

Iran is begging for attention.Iran obviously doesn't have its people under a bridge:they allowed discored.Iran reps say they still want resolution for the Palistines being displaced.It seems to make sense because they could bring up other reasons for being so missunderstood.Ihope its not an excuse being used by them.But seems to be an unlikely cry for help .

[...] writing for Porchy today because, as recent events have shown, technology is by nature political. Access (and lack of access) can have a [...]

[...] the activity is simply Americans “tweeting” amongst themselves. Nevertheless, the US government requested that Twitter postpone a scheduled downtime for maintenance so that tweeting from Iran could go [...]