Will Twitter Become the New "Voice of America" Propaganda Arm?

Feb. 15, 2011 - PRLog -- Sometimes the US government dumps paper pamphlets out of airplanes over places it wants to see people challenge their governments. How 20th century! This weekend the US State Department started something new: Tweeting in Farsi through an account set up to speak to the people resuming protests in Iran.

@USAdarFarsi, as the account is named, now has nearly 3,000 people following it. What is it Tweeting? Calls to support public demonstrations, like in Egypt. Referencing Egypt at this point sounds like a call to overthrow the government, does it not? Decades of historical tension between the US and the Middle East, when it comes to communication policies and technology in particular, give reason to pause before assuming the State Department's social media campaigns will be received as benevolent.
The Associated Press first reported on the account today. Twitter no longer labels accounts as officially verified, as of last Fall it said it would come up with "a new system" in the future.

State Department employee Darren Krape, however, confirmed to us (on Twitter!) that the account was official. Apparently whoever is behind it also has a sense of humor; they're following the Iranian Presidential satire account @M_Ahmadinejad, for example. ("Great Satans! In Iran, February 14th has always been 'Get Out In The Street And Get Some Fresh Air Day'," that account Tweeted tonight. "Stop reporting this as protests!")

Katie Stanton, former State Department official and now Twitter employee, last night compared this Twitter campaign to the historical Voice of America radio and television propaganda efforts. Voice of America, though, has been widely criticized as a crude tool of American influence around the world.

http://www.bestlaptopbattery.co.uk/compaq/nc6400.htm
Below: Before Twitter, before Wikileaks. A 1953 cable from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad back home to Washington discusses the "anti-communist brainwashing" (their words!) being scheduled for Iraqi participants in the US-sponsored ROTC programs there.
The award-winning National Security Archive at George Washington University published an in-depth examination of decades of US government propaganda efforts throughout the Mid East in 2002, it makes for good historical context. At the very least, it's a lesson in what not to do and what to remember that people in the region likely have in their memories.http://www.bestlaptopbattery.co.uk/hp/2230s.htm
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