Activists Skirt Web Crackdown to Reach the Outside World

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The intensifying crackdown on supporters and leaders of Iran's opposition, and the banning of foreign media from covering it, hasn't prevented a flood of online information about Iranian protests from reaching the world. Video, still images and text messages posted on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and news Web sites Monday chronicled the latest antigovernment action, held largely at Iranian universities on what has historically been a protest day, National Student Day. Rather than being cowed by authorities' show of force, or by hampered online and mobile links, opposition members and their supporters showed they have honed communication skills developed during the protests of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in June. "The people of Iran have figured out how to get around filtering," said Mehdi Saharkhiz, 27, a graphic designer living in New Jersey and the son of a prominent, imprisoned Iranian journalist. "They have become their own news agency."


Activists Skirt Web Crackdown to Reach the Outside World