Does Twitter deserve a Nobel Prize?
What the micro-blogging service did for protesters in Iran
News from inside Iran like the video showing the death of Neda Soltani spread via Twitter.
(DPA/Corbis/DB Internet)
When traditional journalists were forced to leave Iran, said Bush administration deputy national security adviser Mark Pfeifle in The Christian Science Monitor, "Twitter became a window for the world to view hope, heroism, and horror." Without it, the world might never have learned the story of Neda Aghan Soltan, who dreamed of freedom and was gunned down by a pro-government sniper (watch video of Neda's death—warning: graphic and disturbing) . Because of that, "Twitter and its creators are worthy of being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize."
Giving Twitter "the same prize that Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Martin Luther King Jr. have all received" sounds "utterly absurd," said MG Siegler in TechCrunch. When Pfeifle first suggested Twitter deserved a Nobel Prize (watch the video), he said the micro-blogging site deserved it for postponing maintenance work so the tweets from Iran could continue—and that "remains absurd." But there's no denying that Twitter has had tremendous impact in getting out the truth about the uprising.
Regardless, it's a bit early to be congratulating anybody about helping ordinary Iranians, said Reza Aslan in The Daily Beast. "The revolution, it turns out, is far from over." And the regime could very well crush the pro-democracy uprising if the rest of us look the other way.
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6 Comments
Posted by Aaron, Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 12:21 pm Twitter is technology, nothing more, nothing less. It's the people who use it who make it what it is.
Posted by Scott, Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 3:13 pm It's not about the platform, it's the people. So yes, I do think all the people who are using Twitter to spread news in Iran and elsewhere deserve great acclaim. I think other social entrepreneurs have been using twitter for a while to help better the world. A great case in point is Guy Kawasaki. There's a great profile explaining how he's used twitter to fix the world at The Stimulist dot com
Posted by Jeremy, Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 5:33 pm I think the people who posted the news deserve the prize if anybody. But like others', I think it's sorta silly to offer the Nobel Prize to Twitter.
Posted by Ray Sanford, Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 8:30 pm If Al Gore deserves one for his bad science, then Twitter ought to get a whole bunch of them. At least they're not trying to fool people.
Posted by Mike Mixer, Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 11:07 am If those two old frauds Mother Teresa and The Dalai Lama get peace awards for doing less for humanity than your average cab driver then Twitter deserves at least one for every voice that made it out of that horrid wilderness.
Posted by Megan, Monday, July 13, 2009, 2:18 pm Mike Mixer, I'm glad someone finally said it.
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