Josh Shahryar fisks a Daily Telegraph piece by Will Heaven. It begins:
As young men and women took to the streets of Tehran on Sunday to confront the Revolutionary Guard, another very different protest sprang to life all over the world. This one didn’t face tear-gas or gunfire. And its participants didn’t risk prison, torture or death. It took place on 2009’s most trendy website: Twitter.com.
Well, now, how about the risk of having your family imprisoned, tortured or killed?
Did you know that dozens of social media activists have families in Iran and dozens more have received e-mails from the Iranian government telling them to stop or else their families would face serious harm? Did you know that Fereshteh Ghazi (@iranbaan), another activist who writes about prisoners, has family in Iran? Did you know that Isa Saharkhiz, the father of the most active of the Twitterati, Mehdi Saharkhiz (@onlymehdi), is in prison and being tried in connection with the protests?
Scott Lucas adds that persiankiwi, the indispensable tweeter of the June protests, was also arrested.