Vahid Online ( fa, وحيد آنلاين) is the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

of an Iranian

blogger A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

netizen The term netizen is a portmanteau of the English words ''internet'' and '' citizen'', as in a "citizen of the net" or "net citizen". It describes a person actively involved in online communities or the Internet in general.

Internet activist Internet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster and more effective communication by citizen movements, the delivery of particular infor ...

and

Internet celebrity An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social ...

who is one of the most followed Iranians on almost any

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

. He is a news

geek The word ''geek'' is a slang term originally used to describe Eccentricity (behavior), eccentric or non-mainstream people; in current use, the word typically connotes an expert or enthusiast obsessed with a hobby or intellectual pursuit. In th ...

and is considered by many of his followers as the source for daily news and information.

Activism

Days before the 2009 presidential election, Vahid Online was present in Mir-Hossein Mousavi campaign headquarters in

Gheytarieh Qeytarieh (also spelled Gheytarieh) is an affluent neighbourhood in northern Tehran, located within the larger Shemiran district. Gheytarieh has about 150,000 residents. Qeytarieh is famous for a large park with the same name. Qeytarieh Park wa ...

, when the place was rushed by government militias. Witnessing the event, he immediately posted it on his blog and social media accounts, and used his mobile phone to broadcast live footage on

Qik Skype Qik was a video messaging service by Skype. It was created by the company, Skype Technologies, who acquired ''Qik''. The service, offered for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices, allowed users to exchange video messages between i ...

. Within a few hours, 8,000 users watched the video online and it went nationwide when it was shown on

BBC Persian BBC Persian ( fa, بی‌بی‌سی فارسی) is the Persian language broadcast station and subsidiary of BBC World Service which conveys the latest political, social, economical and sport news relevant to Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, and ...

evening news. By that time, his social media posts acted as a source of information for the media outside Iran regarding the developments inside the country. After he was tracked down for his activities, he moved into hideout, and later escaped Iran to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

with the help of

smugglers Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

before settling in the United States as a

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

Google Plus Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus; sometimes called G+) was a social network owned and operated by Google. The network was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challenge other social networks, linking other Google ...

' former policy of not allowing pseudonyms for users, forced Vahid Online to deactivate his account. However, after Google was convinced that this is an "established" pseudonym and he has a "meaningful following", gave his account back.

News events coverage

Vahid Online runs a

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

channel and a

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account through which he actively monitors what circulates in social media to cover

newsworthy News values are "criteria that influence the selection and presentation of events as published news." These values help explain what makes something "newsworthy." News values are not universal and can vary between different cultures. Among the ma ...

events regarding Iran. He posts content that he aggregates and verifies for other Iranians and the broader world, as relied on and covered by respected outlets. Some recent significant instances include firsthand videos from 2017 and 2019 nationwide protests, or images and films revealing about coronavirus casualties in the country that the government tended to withhold from the public since the beginning of the outbreak.

Views

Vahid Online has challenged validity of the '

Twitter Revolution Twitter Revolution is a term used to refer to different revolutions and protests, most of which featured the use of the social networking site Twitter by protestors and demonstrators in order to communicate. Events known as Twitter Revolution * 2 ...

' thesis and

Douglas Rushkoff Douglas Mark Rushkoff (born February 18, 1961) is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open sourc ...

's view on role of social media in 2009 poll presidential election protests, believing them to be "exaggerated". He believes that blocking access to online products in Iran by companies like Google, mirrors the policies of

Internet censorship in Iran Iran is notable for its degree of government-sponsored internet censorship. , the country blocks approximately 27% of internet sites and , blocks half of the top 500 visited websites worldwide. The Iranian government and Islamic Revolutionary G ...

by the government. Commenting on

Javad Zarif Mohammad Javad Zarif Khansari ( fa, محمدجواد ظریف خوانساری, Mohammad-Javād Zarīf Khānsāri ; ; born 8 January 1960) is an Iranian career diplomat and academic. He was the foreign minister of Iran from 2013 until 2021 in th ...

's presence in social media, he was quoted, "Zarif is the first senior Iranian official to type with his own fingers and write that he is using Facebook, a site that has been branded as a tool of enemies and mentioned in trials of opposition members" and "People have gotten used to the government's stance on Facebook, and now they're hoping that with the presence of the foreign minister, the site will become unfiltered".

Awards

Vahid Online was awarded

The BOBs The Bobs were an a cappella vocal group founded in San Francisco, California in the early 1980s. They moved to Seattle, Washington and were active recording and touring throughout the United States, Canada and Europe until their farewell show a ...

citizen journalism people's choice award in 2016, and best person to follow Persian in 2013.

Activism

News events coverage

Views

Awards

See also

References

External links