Count the number of cell phones and digital cameras in this photo, clipped from a story on the recent wave of protests at TPM. There’s been a lot of talk about what technology can do for people living under oppressive regimes like the one in Iran. But this sort of brings it home. The concentration of phones and cameras is remarkable, and remarkably troubling for the Iranian state, as photos and video taken and uploaded to the Internet reveal to the world the horrors incurred by protesters. More here. All the same, it’s a real worry to think that the Iranian state will use these very images to hunt down protesters in the future, if not presently.
