By Li Hongmei People's Daily Online

More often than not, behind any political protest there must be some pushing hands, and media comes first on the list. In the information society, nothing can match the Internet for speed and influence. By sticking labels like 'cyber-revolution' on events in Iran, people have been more conscious of the power of social media than ever; and the quick escalation of Teheran riots made the online social networking look much more threatening than it really is.

But why Twitter, a popular microblogging site, has been singled out among the bewildering amount of terminal information services? Just for the simple reason that the protests unfolding in the street of Teheran would be, in all likelihood, forever linked with an iPhone. And the disputed election, as well as protest updates, true or false, has been most discussed and shared via Twitter. Even some political pundits have already dubbed the Iranian protests as 'Twitter Revolution.'

In a full cognizance of the fact that the online activism could be effective enough to worsen the situation on the ground, Washington spared no time to pounce on Twitter and insidiously launched cyber-attacks against Ahmadinejad who has been struggling to settle the dust. Almost overnight, there appeared plenty of intelligent reports from so-called eyewitnesses from Teheran as well as links to photos and videos of events, covered almost in real time. Some have been found well-tailored to help a particular side, and some are just twisted to throw dust into the eyes of people living far away from the chaotic scene.

It is rumored that Tod Cohen, eBay Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Government Relations, had e-mailed the popular microblogging site at the very onset of Iranian protests instructing Twitter to postpone its maintenance in Iran set in the afternoon till the following morning, so that the protest-related discussions and pictures could be relayed via the comparatively secure private platforms like e-mail or instant-messaging.

It really goes beyond imagination that whether the new technology like Twitter, born three years ago, could play a bigger, and perhaps still unappreciated, role in fueling the political protests. But it did touch off enough attention of both the government in question and international community this time to the power of the nascent social media, even if some may be not so readily prone to embracing the contention like 'Twitter Revolution,' and also reluctant to admit that new media tools like Twitter could effectively muffle some voices while mobilizing and magnifying others.

But the fact that Twitter-based activism is restricted to cyberspace does not absolve it of its destructive capabilities. Just imagine how the rumors, wide spread through iPhone, such as Moussavi under house arrest and the voting annulled, have ever frayed nerves of the Iranian public both at home and abroad. Additionally, the online activities of Moussavi's supporters have also thickened the fog in which the true is mingled with the false.

However tempting it might be to attribute the political variations to the power of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media, people should be extremely careful in coming to their conclusions, especially given the evidence so far accumulated is still sparse. Therefore, it seems still too early to say that the age of E-diplomacy has set in. What's more, the virtual blogosphere proves volatile and not so reliable, and perhaps, people will have to pay a dire price for so much devotion to it.