Back in the summer of 2006, in the heat of the midterm elections, George Allen experienced his infamous “Macaca Moment” which was captured on video and posted on YouTube:

Up until that moment, Allen was considered not merely the favorite for the Senate seat for which he was running, but also for the Republican nomination for President in 2008. But that Macaca Moment derailed Allen’s political career altogether.

This dynamic revealed the truly profound power of YouTube. Up until that moment, YouTube was just the latest fad. A toy for the kids. But the Macaca Moment showed that YouTube reflected a seismic shift in all of public life, not to mention plenty within the private sphere too.

Well, the hashtag #iranelection is presently doing the same thing for Twitter. I think it’s a strategic mistake that Twitter hides that link behind a login requirement. Because the page behind that login gate is truly, historically profound.

Fortunately, Twitter is such a success story already that a growing cottage industry of third party tools and sites expands and embellishes the Twitter ecosystem. Here is a link to #iranelection allowing anyone to see what is going on there: http://wthashtag.com/Iranelection.

What is the #iranelection hashtag? Get on one of these links and find out for yourself. Check out history being made.

Gotta run. People are posting that the Iranian government is onto #iranelection now and is blocking it. Gotta see what’s trending. As I write, it’s 7:08 a.m. Tuesday morning in Tehran. Maybe some of the kids there are up and tweeting again. Hope they’re safe. See ya.