“Twitter should get the Nobel Peace Prize”
Yes. You read that right. That’s the recommendation from Mark Pfeifle, a former US national security adviser.
The Nobel Peace prize is given annually to someone who has done most to promote “fraternity between nations” and for “holding the promotion of peace”.
So why should Twitter deserve this accolade? For the role it played in the civil unrest in Iran over the last month.
Pfeifle has said that Twitter played a key role in allowing people caught up in the crisis to share and document their experiences. In a country where the media is strictly controlled, Twitter allowed the free expression of the populations’ anxieties. At its zenith, there were over 220,000 Tweets per hour on the subject of Iran. And its still not over – the conflict continues to generate huge volumes of Tweets, and #iranelection is consistently in the top 10 Trending Topics.
Pfeifle said: “When traditional journalists were forced to leave the country, Twitter became a window for the world to view hope, heroism, and horror. It became the assignment desk, the reporter, and the producer. And, because of this, Twitter and its creators are worthy of being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Pfeifle originally floated the idea on Fox News, where it was met with derision.
“Twitter has been criticized as a time-waster — a way for people to inform their friends about the minutiae of their lives, 140 characters at a time. But in the past month, 140 characters were enough to shine a light on Iranian oppression and elevate Twitter to the level of change agent”, he said.
Twitter wasn’t the only social network to receive praise. Pfeifle also said that thanks to Facebook presidential hopeful Mousavi had accumulated more than 100,000 supporters.
The Nobel Prize is decided by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who present the prize annually in Oslo, Norway.
Previous winners have included Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr, the Dalai Lama and in more recently in 2007 Al Gore.
Does Twitter deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? Or is it just a tool that has been successfully used as a way to resist? Leave us a comment below.