Comments on: Data: Online, Iranians turning to Facebook during crisis

By: darkfall gold

darkfall gold — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:36:23 +0000

The second most shared type of link, perhaps surprisingly, is tips for using proxy internet services, wherein users can access the web as if they were on a computer in another country, and so escape detection from authorities.Really?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:42:53 +0000

Gee, if there has been a lot of discussion about what internet proxy services are best for Iranians to use in the current situation, you don't suppose that a large number of Iranian users are actually using them? There could even be large negative bias from the fact that many Iranian users are reporting their location as somewhere other than Iran in order to avoid detection by their security forces. If that's the case, then the increase discussed here is actually dampened.

By: marycjoyce

marycjoyce — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:19:19 +0000

Thanks for proving it with data. But is Facebook traffic from inside Iran or from expats? My research indicates it is the the latter: http://www.digiactive.org/2009/06/15/wimv/

By: Oliver Wagner

Oliver Wagner — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:06:51 +0000

But what I am wondering is, how is this data affected by the iranian censorship? Facebook is easy to filter, if the access to their servers is blocked no one will be able to access it (well, except people who are willing to use proxies). But since Twitter is more open, it maybe accessed to hundreds of other sites and services. That is way harder to be blocked – and would not show up in the shown statistcs either…

By: suzannelainson

suzannelainson — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:44:53 +0000

Thanks for this. I've been bothered by all the buzz claiming recent events were a victory/validation of Twitter. I have no problem with Twitter and use it myself, but the hype means people aren't paying attention to who is and isn't using it. When that happens with a technology, it tends to fall out of favor quickly after people realize the reality doesn't match the PR.

By: Marshall

Marshall — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:36:49 +0000

Dude, good post.

By: Hooman Radfar

Hooman Radfar — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:02:46 +0000

I have read that Perfspot is the most popular network in Iran. Have to find that report…

By: igniguy

igniguy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:11:18 +0000

It may be surprising, but facebook is a lot more popular outside the US than inside. I mean, really popular, like, the #2 or #3 site in many countries. (over here in Greece, it's #2, twitter is not even in the top 20). here's alexa's top 20 for iran: http://alexa.com/topsites/countries/IR ; twitter is not in the top 1000