Why Twitter Didn’t Go Down: The State Department Told It Stay Up (But Not Forever!)
by Peter Kafka
Posted on June 16, 2009 at 2:38 PM PT
Skeptical about the impact of Twitter on the unrest in Tehran? The State Department isn’t: It asked the service to reschedule its planned maintenance/outage so Iranians could use it to communicate in and outside of the country.
Reuters: “‘We highlighted to them that this was an important form of communication,’ said the [unnamed U.S.] official of the conversation the department had with Twitter at the time of the disputed Iranian election. He declined further details.”
CNN: “Senior officials say the State Department asked Twitter to refrain for going down for periodic scheduled maintenance at this critical time to ensure the site continues to operate. Bureau’s and offices across the State Department, they say, are paying very close attention to Twitter and other sites to get information on the situation in Iran.”
UPDATE: Even the State Department can’t keep Twitter up forever. It’s nighttime in Tehran and Twitter is down — the company’s status blog dedicated to stuff like this indicates it should be shuttered from about 5pm tp 6:30 pm eastern time. UPDATE2: It’s back!
Comments
They weren’t “told” to stay up. They were asked to stay up. There is a big difference between a request and a command.
If they were really “told” to stay up that would be a big deal because that would be another example of government interfering with a private business. However, this isn’t what happened.
Posted by AJ Simkatu at June 16th, 2009 at 2:27 pmWell, AJ, you’re right! Twitter’s down now. But really — let’s say you run a small startup with lots of buzz and no revenue. Let’s say you get a call from the State Department “asking” you to defer your maintenance for bit. Are you going to say no?
Posted by Peter Kafka at June 16th, 2009 at 2:45 pmWhile they weren’t ordered to stay up, the guys at Twitter are no dummies. The US government told them that their system was going to become (again) a major news source. Of course they are going to stay up – not necessarily because Uncle Sam wants to tick of the mullahs but because from a market legitimacy point of view, it was priceless. If they ever figure out a revenue stream, this kind of exposure will be a big part of any success it sees.
Posted by Mike Coffey at June 16th, 2009 at 4:50 pm