Earlier this morning, our friends at Geekosystem wrote about an Egyptian man who has named his daughter “Facebook.” Based off how most of us Americans use the website (“I guess you’re not too hot to go to prom with me now that you’ve grown up and gotten fat, Allison McCallister!”), this might seem a little silly. Then however, you see posts like this and you begin to understand. In it, the group Secular Democracy & Human Rights For IRAN has sent a Facebook message to all its followers asking for help identifying a “new tear gas” that the Iranian government is apparently using on protesters.

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Here’s what the message, entitled “IRAN: ‘URGENT WE NEED YOUR HELP,'” says:

“‘Attention all Chemical Engineers’The Islamic regime in IRAN is using a new ‘tear gas’ that renders those exposed into a state of semi paralysis and violent sickness. We want to reach out to chemical engineers the world over to help us identify the gas and how to

defuse it? Symptoms include:severe nausea and vomiting (in some cases blood),semi paralysis,blurry vision.Please leave your comments or send emails to helpfreedomfightersiniran@gmail.comif you know what to do?”

The message then includes a couple of pictures (including the one above) that appear to be of protesters surrounded by chemical gas.

Sure, enough, in the comments, amongst the general messages of support, are comments from medical and chemical experts giving guesses as to what an antidote would be as well as giving advice on how to avoid or seek treatment after exposure.

It’s stories like these that really show just how much social media is helping these protests in ways that couldn’t have been imagined a few years ago.

(h/t Reddit)

Tags: Facebook, Iran, social media