If this is true....

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Get Rid of Censorship for #Iranelection

Thousands of people have been tweeting on #Iranelection since 12 June 2009. They are human rights activists, journalists, media and people from Iran who are living under a violent, fascist regime that imprisons, tortures and executes them for trying to exercise free speech, asking for democracy and equality, and their membership of political opposition groups. Indeed, the information posted on #iranelection has become vital for Iranians in danger, who are censored in their own country by a regime which limits internet, TV and other media access. #iranelection was at the forefront of changing the world's opinion of Twitter, leading the 'Twitter revolution' and showing that it can be used to further serious human rights issues. It is no exaggeration to say that lives have been saved because of communication between Twitter users in and outside Iran. In addition the media goes to #iranelection to collect information which it then relays to its stations and worldwide. Here is the problem: #iranelection, if Twitter is fair, has top 10 trended, and would continue to do so, nearly every day since 12 June 2009. This is how trending should work - the people decide which topics trend by working hard to contribute to the tag. During important protests, many thousands more tweets are posted on #iranelection, as we need communication to be effective, fast, and get backwards and forwards between Iran, the world and the media. On 12 June 2010, the anniversary of the disputed Iranian elections, the tag was moving so fast it needed several translators working for nearly 15 hours plus hundreds of contributors to document the protests occuring in real time. When we examined the trending topics, however, we saw that #iranelection was not trending. It was a surprise, so we checked it out. That day the top trending topics included FIFA World Cup and #worldcup as well as the oil crisis and some media stars. However, as we researched further we found that #iranelection WAS PRODUCING UP TO TEN TIMES THE AMOUNT OF TWEETS PER MINUTE THAN ANY OF THE OTHER SO-CALLED TOP TRENDING TOPICS!! When we investigated, we were told that Twitter had set up a 'new algorithm' which deselected established tags and allowed more 'immediately popular' topics to trend. Not only is that censorship (however it is done) and goes against the principle of 'if you tweet, you trend', it is also contradictory. How can something NOT be 'immediately popular' if it is producing up to 10 times the amount of tweets than the other tags??? More seriously, media go to Twitter to see what is trending. If #iranelection IS trending, but Twitter do not allow that to be seen, it is NOT an exaggeration to say that lives could be lost in Iran. If the media do not cover the event as they do not realise there are thousands of protesters on the streets risking their lives, and those protesters are not as protected by the attention of the media. In addition, many people spend thousands of hours volunteering to tweet on the tag or attend protest events worldwide, at great cost to them and their organisations in terms of time and resources. Some organisations also rely on publicity to obtain donations etc. We believe this censorship of #iranelection is totally unacceptable and needs to be removed immediately. It undermines the whole basis of Twitter's philosophy and, worse, can endanger people's lives. We hope you will all agree that this is relevant to ALL the hashtags on Twitter - it could be YOURS next! We would therefore appreciate it if you would please sign this petition in support of fairness, equity and of vulnerable people around the world who rely on #iranelection, as well as other tags which may be affected now, or in the future. Thank you.
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Sign twitition at: http://twitition.com/87qzt