Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is defending her department’s decision to ask Twitter to stay up and running during presidential election protests in Iran.
“It is a fundamental right for people to communicate,” Clinton said.
Twitter had planned to do some site maintenance earlier this week that would have taken it offline for a few hours. But after a call from the state department, the microblogging site decided to put off its maintenance. Yesterday, Twitter’s co-founder said the decision had nothing to do with pressure from the government. He said they would have done it anyway because of the importance of the situation.
Since access to other communications is limited, Twitter has been an instrumental tool in helping Iranian protestors organize. Iran’s government has accused the U.S. of interference in their affairs.