The Obama administration, while insisting it is not meddling in Iran, yesterday confirmed it had asked Twitter to remain open to help anti-government protesters.
The company had planned a temporary shutdown to overhaul its service in the middle of the night on Monday but the US state department put in a request to postpone this.
Many protesters have being using Twitter to spread information about rallies and to share news.
'People's voices should be heard': Barack Obama on the Iran situation
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, asked about this at a press conference yesterday, would neither confirm or deny it, saying only that a free press and a means of communication were important.
But the state department yesterday confirmed a request was made to Twitter.
The New York Times last night identified the author of the request as Jared Cohen, a 27-year-old state department official. Twitter complied with the request, delaying its overhaul until last night.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/17/obama-iran-twitter
