This episode will touch upon the reason of the leader's use of Twitter to publish his letter to the youth in the west. The issue of cyber space and social networks is a new and effective phenomenon among the world people especially the young generation. Besides defects and harms these media enjoy positive features, too. Every minute over 700,000 searches are done via Google and168 million e-mails are sent. Every day 19 billion messages are exchanged in what's up network while this figure amounts to 24 billion messages round the clock. In addition to these means of communication, mobile phone enjoys most of the new technologies whereby one can send or receive the news of any given event.
Nowadays, many people have access to at least one social network. This has enabled everybody to act as a medium himself apart from the known media. Among the positive features of cyber space one can refer to the capability of access, analysis, assessment and creative production in this space. Creative production means to present to the society what is effective and caters to the needs of people.
The obvious instance of the application of the cyber space is the publication of the letter of the leader of the Islamic revolution to the youth in the United States and Europe on Twitter. The letter has addressed the youth as the builders of future of human society. Ayatollah Khamenei calls on the non-Muslim truth-seeking youth to know Islam directly and via the genuine sources.
Although the leader of the Islamic revolution knows that the minds of the western youth are poisoned by the venomous propaganda of the enemies but, as a religious scholar, he deems it as a duty to call them to discern false from true and find the right path. Those who are familiar with the meaning of public diplomacy have understood that this letter can be considered as a special case of diplomacy and the best usage of social networks. Regarding that the peak of using social networks is the first hours of night, the publication of this message at that time indicates the proper understanding of the capacity of these media.
Undoubtedly, the letter has been seen tens of millions of times. Concurrent with the publication of the letter the leader's website "Khamenei.ir" prepared a special hashtag with a few short questions as the proposed content to the users so that they could twit and republish it widely. Moreover, special software was put on the site titled "letter4U" which was exclusively for the cell phones functioning with android. Furthermore, the Iranian youth began taking the message to the people of their age. To create the second wave of the message, they started designing posters, info-graphics, video clips, writing articles and presenting written analyses in different languages.
But what has been more visible on the social networks is the widespread release of the letter by even non-Iranian users resulting in the formation of the letter4U campaign.
The activists of the letter4U campaign have explained their goals as follows, "As you know the letter of the leader of the Islamic revolution has been released for the youth of Europe and North America. Although the letter has been published by relatively limited number of websites and social network accounts, it has been vastly reflected among the international news agencies and media. This letter and the wave that has been created by our dear leader is a unique opportunity so that we, as the soldiers of the cultural front, fulfill our duty and export Islam and the Islamic revolution to the entire world and enlighten the minds of other countries. Just as our parents played their role in staging the revolution, we, too, should fulfill our duty in creating the global revolution in the sphere of minds and thoughts of individuals."
The activists of this campaign believe that their main duty is to take the message to the ears of the youth all over the world. The initial message is titled, "somebody has written you a letter!" This is the primary message that should be made reach the ears of the audience abroad and the text of the main letter will be given in later stages.
Collecting the responses of the audience on cyber space can be considered as a feedback of the message. The responses are divided in several categories: The first group is those who have understood the logic of the message properly. Among the plethora of comments which are found in English sites there are a lot of such responses. For instance, Jay from New York Magazine writes: The view of the Iranian leader impressed me. His message was timely and eloquent. When I saw this message on Twitter tears rolled down my eyes because I think it was beautiful and sincere. I thank Ayatollah Khamenei for this due challenge to the youth of the world.
Another group is the individuals who, under the influence of the western media propaganda, raise questions about Islam with negative prejudices. These people have raised their ambiguities on Islam in the form of questions and posts that they leave under the news on the message. For sure this can serve as a beginning for debate and Q &A among the youth in the west and Muslim nations. The third group consists of Muslims and thinkers who have welcomed the content of the letter. For instance, Asef Hussein, the retired professor of Lancaster University in England who has written several books on Iran, maintains that this message is the word of the majority of Muslims and should be published among all. He also believes that the message will change the view of western people in Iran, for; its content is thoroughly opposite to what the people of Europe and America think about Iran.
The last group consists of the so-called mainstream media and the propaganda horns that are controlled by the Zionists. Since the very first hours of the publication of the letter, they broached on altercation, foul-mouthed remarks, raising doubts and questioning the letter.
Apart from the content of the letter, the communication and correspondence of letters between dignitaries and professors is of paramount importance. The events occurring concurrent with the Israeli carnage on Gaza in 2014 proved that the social networks can play a significant role in countering and thwarting the effects of the mainstream media and their regional lackeys and marionettes. This time, too, they can play their efficient role in foiling the ploys of the Zionist-steered media.
