The United States State Department asked Twitter operators to delay a scheduled maintenance downtime in order to allow the service to continue providing critical communication in Iran during the protests over a contested election. Talk about a seal of approval for a service’s necessity.

The U.S. State Department contacted the social networking service Twitter over the weekend to urge it to delay a planned upgrade that could have cut daytime service to Iranians, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

(h/t Andrew Sullivan)

By the way, Andrew Sullivan is running a constant stream of the best info from Iran on his website The Daily Dish.