by Davar Iran Ardalan

On this blog we've posted a live feed from Twitter — with all the tweets containing the hashtag, "#IranElection."

NPR's social media go-to guy, Andy Carvin, says if you look at the numbers, it's the hashtag that's making Twitter such a phenomenon:

The power of Twitter this week hasn't been as a primary organizing tool for the protesters among themselves. Rather, it has served as a conduit for the world outside Iran to rally and organize — particularly in terms of showing moral support for the protesters.

So when a handful of people within Iran post a tweet conveying new information, their use of hashtags like #IranElection helps that information go viral. Twitter users around the world, including the media, monitor these tags to get the latest news — or rumors, in many cases — and propagate them worldwide through re-tweeting or covering them in news stories and blogs.

The twitter feed is below.