Post by Kari Odermann (@Dr_K)

In early January, before the latest escalation in Iran, US President Donald Trump used social media to call on Iranians to “keep protesting”, “take over your institutions,” and promised that “help is on its way.” At the same time, human rights groups were already counting thousands of people killed in the crackdown on those protests, with some estimates now running well above 2,000 dead.
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In early January, before the latest escalation in Iran, US President Donald Trump used social media...

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Kari Odermann: This is a pattern we’ve seen before: powerful actors sitting safely outside a country can, with a few posts, raise the political temperature inside it dramatically. Social media lowers the cost of saying “go to the streets” or “don’t back down,” but it does not lower the cost for the people who will...