Does Twitter deserve a Nobel Prize?

When traditional journalists were forced to leave Iran, said Bush administration deputy national security adviser Mark Pfeifle in The Christian Science Monitor, "Twitter became a window for the world to view hope, heroism, and horror." Without it, the world might never have learned the story of Neda Aghan Soltan, who dreamed of freedom and was gunned down by a pro-government sniper (watch video of Neda's death—warning: graphic and disturbing) . Because of that, "Twitter and its creators are worthy of being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize."

Giving Twitter "the same prize that Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Martin Luther King Jr. have all received" sounds "utterly absurd," said MG Siegler in TechCrunch. When Pfeifle first suggested Twitter deserved a Nobel Prize (watch the video), he said the micro-blogging site deserved it for postponing maintenance work so the tweets from Iran could continue—and that "remains absurd." But there's no denying that Twitter has had tremendous impact in getting out the truth about the uprising.

Regardless, it's a bit early to be congratulating anybody about helping ordinary Iranians, said Reza Aslan in The Daily Beast. "The revolution, it turns out, is far from over." And the regime could very well crush the pro-democracy uprising if the rest of us look the other way.

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