Twitter and its network partner at NTT America Enterprise Hosting Services deserve much credit for rescheduling critical maintenance that will require an hour of downtime to facilitate an upgrade in order to accommodate some of its most vulnerable users.
The social media giant, which had originally scheduled the maintenance for Monday night, rescheduled it at an unlikely time — in the middle of a weekday afternoon in the United States. Why the odd time, you ask? So that the service currently being utilized as an important communications tool in Iran will be the least disruptive to the people who need it the most. It will be 1:30 a.m. in Iran, or 5 p.m. Tuesday in Connecticut.
This decision would have been unheard of even last week — to accommodate Iranians over Americans. But Twitter recognizes its place in a dangerous and too-often bloody conflict over what has been called a rigged election.
On a blog posted at the top of its site today, Twitter wrote:
“Our partners are taking a huge risk not just for Twitter but also the other services they support worldwide — we commend them for being flexible in what is essentially an inflexible situation. We chose NTT America Enterprise Hosting Services early last year specifically because of their impeccable history of reliability and global perspective. Today’s decision and actions continue to prove why NTT America is such a powerful partner for Twitter.”
In a day where reports of large corporations turning their backs on the little guys — and the Iranian people could certainly fit into that category — in favor of their own profit and self-interests, it is refreshing to see a company that truly cares.
And I, for one, applaud Twitter and NTT America for its selfless actions.
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