If history has taught us anything it’s that Adolph Hitler had a ridiculous moustache, but also that the tools of the media, while undoubtedly invaluable for reporting on global events, can also be exploited and used for propaganda purposes, distorting the truth in the process. Fast forward to the 21st Century and there may be a different set of tools, but they’re still subject to the same abuse and censorship as before.
Take the events unfolding in Iran in recent weeks. During the recent contested Iranian elections, the Revolutionary Guard, an elite military force that answers to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told the Iranian state news service that bloggers must remove all material that could “create tension” from the internet or face legal action. That includes the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
The internet has been a vital tool for reporting the events to the rest of the world, especially after the government clamped down on independent media in an attempt to control the images of election protests. That, obviously didn’t stop some determined Twitterers.
It’s an intriguing insight into the importance of social media sites, compounded by the fact that the US government no less asked Twitter to postpone a scheduled downtime so Iranians could continue to post images and reports of any demonstrations and protests.
Problems arise, however, in trying to deduce whether certain posters are actually who they say they are. Posts on Twitter recently have echoed the sentiment, suggesting that certain posters may even be government plants. While other posts clearly came from people who weren’t even in Tehran.
What does all this tell us about social media? Well, the fact that social networking sites are being used as tools by journalists in all walks of life, to get information out to the general populace, suggests that its importance has grown at a phenomenal rate. Yes it’s open to manipulation, but look back at Mussolini’s control of the newspaper Avanti to further his Fascist beliefs. Look at how Hitler manipulated Germany’s national press with his propaganda minister Paul Josef Goebbels developing sophisticated and effective tools of propaganda to control public opinion in Germany. It’s not something new. The media tools have always been manipulated. The fact that social media tools have also been subject to that mis-use is just another affirmation that social media is here to stay.