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If you haven’t heard about the violent crackdown of protests in Iran on the heels of a highly contested election…well, you should probably google it.

What you may not have heard of is how Twitter is the instrumental tool Iranians are using to get news, pictures and videos of the clashes out of the censored country. In fact, it’s so instrumental Twitter itself is rescheduling their upcoming needed maintenance so the service is not down during the active morning hours in Iran.

Go to the #IranElection twitter search query and see ppl from around the world helping Iranians find proxy IPs so that they can still access twitter, and immerse yourself in the camera phone photos and videos of bloodied protesters coming out of Iran.

Only in moments like this do we fully understand the internet’s leveling power. 10 years ago, before publishing was a simple task afforded to anyone with an internet connection, the Iranian government could easily censor what made it’s way out of the country and into nightly news reports around the world.

Not anymore. Though they did succesfully block friendfeed,  the Iranian government has been unsuccesful in blocking the plethora of info streaming out of the country via Twitter.

With users painting their avatars green in support of the protests, to people all over the world changing their Twitter location to Tehran (making it impossible for the government to track Iranians using twitter), it’s stunning to watch Twitter itself become the epicenter of the communication war between protesters and the government.

There’s been a lot of talk about the point of Twitter. Sometimes I find myself asking the same question. After all, how much inane status updates can one really take? And as an internet marketer who is obsessed with the rapid communication evolution facilitated by the internet, I often forget the big picture – focusing instead on the latest shiny widget.

Not too long ago these Iranians struggling for open democracy would have been isolated behind a shroud of censorship and state-run media. Because of the internet, because of Twitter, these Iranians are able to tell the story of what’s really happening on the streets in Tehran to the whole world. They even get to watch people pass along their story in real-time.

It’s moments like these when the “point” suddenly makes itself very clear.

UPDATE: Iran is now blocking the #IranElection hashtag. The new hashtag being used is #iran9