Good Question
Sure, Twitter has been a fascinating window for those of us on the outside and at times a critical tool for some of those on the inside. I certainly won’t try to deny this, but I have to ask: if – like most start-ups who show only casual interest in generating revenue – Twitter had folded months ago, would the protesters in Iran be somehow muzzled or in any way hindered?
Gotta say I agree with Nathan’s answer: “To say so is nothing less than patronizing. Outward and inward communiques would surely have found another path.” That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, just a bit of perspective on the situation.
Hi, I'm 
Another question is ‘why twitter?’
I have an inkling… mobile usage (do they have a shortcode they can use there?), the very nature of being a part of a _street_ protest, the brevity, the connection to mainstream media, etc. but I’m wondering what others think about why twitter, even more so than Facebook or anything else.
As I understand it (and I haven’t followed it as closely as others) it’s largely due to availability … Twitter seems to have not been blocked as opposed to other social tools.
I thought Kara Swisher recently said it well:
“What one can deny, though, is the hype that inevitably follows in the wake of every one of these breakthrough technologies like Twitter. That’s a mistake, because it is how the tools are used by people, more than the tools themselves, that should be the focus. Still, the media hyping of tech tools as savior is reliably annoying. Television, of course, changed the presidential elections, as radio had before that. And, more recently, weren’t mobile phone cameras critical in reporting the bombing in London’s Underground in 2005? Or wasn’t Facebook key to protests in Burma in 2008? And, even more profoundly, didn’t the simple fax machine get lauded during the uprising in China’s Tiananmen Square in Beijing as an heroic gadget?”
http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090616/inane-and-half-baked-twitter-is-the-forrest-gump-of-international-relations/
What continues to fascinate me is the role of new technology in the Iranian “revolution”. Today’s NY Times reports on the difficulties of getting the 40 second video of the young woman who was killed, Neda, to YouTube, but how galvanzing it was once it appeared there.