People who tried to access Twitter early Friday were redirected to a Web site from the 'Iranian Cyber Army'.

CNN

The popular microblogging Web site Twitter was hacked overnight, leaving the millions who use the site tweetless.

Those who tried to access Twitter were redirected to a site that had a green flag and proclaimed "This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army."

The Web site was down for nearly an hour. Representatives from Twitter could not be immediately reached for comment, but the company spoke about the issue on its official Twitter page.

"Twitter's DNS records were temporarily compromised but have now been fixed. We will update with more information soon," the company posted at about 2:30 a.m. ET Friday.

It was unclear who the group Iranian Cyber Army was and if it is connected to Iran. However, Twitter has had an interesting relationship with Iran.

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Soleil Moon Frye and family.

Soleil Moon Frye
Entertainer and Entrepreneur

My love affair with Twitter started some months back. It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon and my incredible friend @mrskutcher (Demi Moore) came over for a visit with the kids. She was being brilliant and beautiful as always while she told me about an incredible world that she and her husband had discovered called “Twitter.” I had heard a little about it here and there but didn’t know much about its core essence. Together we sat in front of the computer and she taught me how to post my first micro blog. Within moments, I discovered the beauty of this incredible virtual world. One in which I began connecting with people in an amazing way.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have kept a journal. I have a love for writing, words and language. I also have a deep fascination with people and the human spirit. From the time I was 5, I asked people the most personal questions I could think of. I was truly moved by the inner connection between mind and heart. This led me on a journey to study psychology in New York but I never finished college. Instead I began directing and writing, I fell in love, got married, had babies, and began the next chapters of my life. My love, passion and curiosity for people never changed. As a new mom I had so many questions and did not know where to turn. I started writing blogs about issues I cared about and connecting through the social community. Keep reading

CNN

Is was a busy week on the American political scene. Go here to check out some of this week's best political tweets.

Mashable's Pete Cashmore says he thinks location-based mobile startup Foursquare will be the Twitter of 2010.

Pete Cashmore
Special to CNN

As 2009 draws to a close, with Twitter undoubtedly this year's media darling and Facebook continuing on its path to global domination, you may wonder which social-media service will become tech's poster boy in 2010.

Among the Web's early adopter set, the answer is nearly unanimous: Foursquare.

While the technology landscape is ever-changing, I'd argue that Foursquare already has aligned itself to become next year's mainstream hit.

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Program Note: Tune in tonight for Randi Kaye's report on Maine's Question 1 ballot issue. AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

AC360°

In Maine today, voters will decide whether or not to repeal a state law that would allow same-sex couples to marry. Both sides are expecting a razor thin margin of victory and early polling shows it’s too close to call. People from all over the country are watching out for the results, and donating money to try to influence it.

Eighty-three percent of the money for the campaign against same-sex marriage has come from the Roman Catholic Church and the Mormon-backed National Organization for Marriage. Supporters of same-sex marriage are ahead in contributions, with a great deal of support coming from individual donors in California, where activists hope to overturn Proposition 8.

The momentum is building on Twitter today. #Maine is one of the top 10 topics trending on Twitter.

Check out the Twitter traffic related to this topic here and let us know what you think!

President Obama discusses his health care plans Friday at a meeting in Belgrade, Montana.

Suvro Banerji
AC360° Intern

President Obama made another attempt today to push for a health care overhaul. And he chose to do so in Montana, a traditionally conservative state. Speaking to a mostly supportive crowd, Mr. Obama emphasized the fact that the health care system requires improving insurance practices and reducing the costs of treatment. 

There are critics who believe that health care reform could become Pres. Obama's Iraq. Also, there is skepticism among members from his own party that this bill will eventually be so watered down that they're starting to call it the "health care lite."  

Is this health care debate going to have a lasting effect on this presidency? Tonight, we will dig deeper with former Bush 43 speechwriter David Frum, Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page and Nia-Malika Henderson from Politico. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Charles Grassley got into a Twitter tussle with Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania over the notion that health care reform might lead to pulling the plug on grandma or denying her care. We will keep the politics aside and let 360° MD Sanjay Gupta give us the raw facts.

Also tonight, the death toll from the typhoon in Taiwan is expected to reach more than 500.  Roads are blocked and hundreds of people are trapped and many are badly injured. There is anger and frustration over the government's sluggish response. But rescue workers seem to be trying their best. Senior international correspondent John Vause will join us live from Taiwan with the latest on rescue operations.

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John D. Sutter
CNN

An attack on the social networking site Twitter shut the site down for about two hours on Thursday morning, causing headaches in the online community and glitches in other Web sites like Facebook.

In an e-mail to CNN.com, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said the site was hit with a "denial of service attack," or an attempt to shut the site down by overwhelming it with traffic.

"There's no indication that this attack is related to any previous activities. We are currently the target of a denial of service attack," Stone said in the e-mail.

"Attacks such as this are malicious efforts orchestrated to disrupt and make unavailable services such as online banks, credit card payment gateways, and in this case, Twitter for intended customers or users. We are defending against this attack now and will continue to update our status blog as we defend and later investigate."

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A long-time friend to Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor is confined to a wheelchair because of her scoliosis.

Alan Duke
CNN

Elizabeth Taylor declined an invitation to speak about her friend Michael Jackson at his public memorial because she "cannot be part of the public whoopla," the legendary actress said in an online message Monday.

Taylor, 77, posted the message on her Twitter.com account - DameElizabeth - saying she was invited to speak at the Staples Center memorial in Los Angeles set for 10 a.m. Tuesday.

"I just don't believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others," Taylor tweeted. "How I feel is between us. Not a public event."

Taylor, who uses a wheelchair because of scoliosis, or abnormal curving of the spine, said she would not attend the public memorial.

"I certainly don't want to become a part of it," she said. "I love him too much."

She added, "And I cannot guarantee that I would be coherent to say a word."

Her publicist, Dick Guttman, confirmed the messages were from Taylor, who regularly posts short messages to her 75,000 Twitter followers.

Guttman could not say if Taylor planned to attend the private memorial service set 8 a.m. Tuesday at a Los Angeles cemetery.

Taylor posted several tweets Sunday about Jackson, including one aimed at shooting down tabloid reports that his death had sent her into a deep depression.

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Access to some social networking sites has been blocked in Iran since the June 12 election

Jalal Ghazi
New America Media

The world’s attention is on Iran. But the rhetoric of reformists vs. conservatives and students vs. mullahs cannot capture the complexity of what is happening on the streets of Tehran. Here are six reasons why the situation in Iran cannot be reduced to simplistic headlines or Twitter feeds.

First, the post-election crisis in Iran is not only a reflection of divisions between conservatives and reformers. Perhaps more importantly, it has brought divisions within the conservatives to the forefront.

“It is true that most of the armed forces, especially the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, support the Supreme Leader and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the decision making in Iran is not exclusive to these two men,” said human rights activist Ghanim Jawad on the London-based (ANB-TV) Arab News Broadcast. He pointed to a “vertical division,” not only within the government but also within the society.

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Social networking tools like Twitter were a major source of breaking news from Iran

Ben Parr
Mashable

One of the striking aspects of the #IranElection crisis has been the heavy use of social media. Iranians have relied on it to spread information on protests and to communicate their situation to millions of concerned people worldwide.

In fact, so much has been recorded via social media that it is possible to understand the progression of events through it. Thus, we have built a timeline of events utilizing information recorded via social media. This timeline uses Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Wikipedia to paint a broad picture of the situation, as well as the growing conversation around it.

June 12: The Election

On Friday, June 12th, Iran held its Presidential Elections. According to the official (but now disputed) vote tally, Ahmadinejad secured 24.5 million votes, or 62.6 percent, while Mousavi garnered 13.2 million votes, or 33.7 percent.

Social media was already tracking the results as they occurred. We have provided snippets from Wikipedia, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube, as well as links to the searches, articles, and multimedia referenced here.

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