Opinion: What America has learned from Iranian social media

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has empowered a small staff at the US State Department to use Iranian social media to help craft US public diplomacy with Iranians. He is picture here at the State Department in Washington, DC, on March 25. — AFP

Most Americans have no idea who Nahid Shirbisheh is. But in Iran, she has become a powerful symbol of resistance. A little over a year ago, she witnessed her son’s murder at a government protest in Tehran. Last month she released a video made at the location of his killing that went viral in Iran.

When I spoke to her last month, she surprised me by thanking the Trump administration. "They mentioned my son’s name and my own name and they supported my voice when my son was killed and I was in prison,” she said.