Ground Report

Per Time, the Iranian government has reversed a block on access to social networking Web site Facebook.

The news came after rising protests by supporters of pro-reform candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who is trying to leverage Facebook to gain support from young voters for the upcoming June 12 presidential elections.

Twitterers in Tehran welcomed the change.

1. y_shar (Tehran, Iran) What the hell is going on with the government?!?!?! Now both twitter and facebook are block-free!!! YAAAAAY!!!!! 26 May 2009 from Seesmic Desktop
2. mkhanjani (Tehran, Iran) @f_tamy9 Now facebook and twitter are no longer filtered use them freely 26 May 2009 from TwitterFox in reply to f_tamy9
3. ramezanpour (Tehran, Iran) Here we go again. I’m at home and I can see that Twitter and Facebook has been unblocked 26 May 2009 from TweetDeck
4. smrsm (Tehran, Iran) Facebook is back to normal in Iran 26 May 2009 from digsby

Here are some others tweets on the issue from fascinated Twitterers:

1. assita (Undisclosed) Facebook is working again in Iran…it becomes more and more an Election Plattform for the few presidency candidates… 26 May 2009 from web
2. bilblogz (London, U.K.) Facebook allowed back in Iran – for fear of backlash? (in French) http://bit.ly/Cgz3C 26 May 2009 from web
3. vicshoup (Alpharetta, Ga.) Iran unblocks FaceBook as presidential rival will probably not live to see elections anyway http://bit.ly/89jS8 26 May 2009 from Spaz
4. Vodkaninja (Birmingham, U.K.) Iran ban facebook!! scared shitless that the youths will actually get together and revolt!! 26 May 2009 from web
5. jonkolbe (Boca Raton, Fla.) RT @BreakingNews Iran govt restores access to Facebook and Twitter. (Per my prediction – don’t mess with The Peoples’ addictions) 26 May 2009 from TwitterBerry
6. boxingcleverstl (St. Louis, Mo.) Iran blocks, unblocks, blocks, unblocks Facebook. Sure… it has nothing to do with the upcoming elections http://bit.ly/1FBGh 26 May 2009 from web
7. Semanticwebsite (Santa Cruz, Calif.) Iran Saves Face, Unblocks Facebook. http://bit.ly/10pEyr 26 May 2009 from web
8. kantianhipster (Easthampton, Mass.) Huzzah! “Excellent!– Facebook unblocked in Iran after hoopla over pre-election ban: http://bit.ly/unCuE (via @LATimes) (via @arenda)” 26 May 2009 from Tweetie
9. Andy_Squirrel (Seattle, Wash.) is fascinated by what is going on in Iran for the upcoming election. Interested in the reform party and their use of facebook. 26 May 2009 from twhirl
10. AzureMoak (Comox, B.C.) Hello to all you Iranians out there, glad to see your Government back down from their censorship of Facebook and Twitter #Iran 27 May 2009 from TweetDeck