Timeline of the 2009 Iranian election protests protesters swept into the streets of Tehran, in open defiance of warnings issued Friday by Iran's Supreme Leader and Security Council. State media said 457 people had been detained over Saturday's violence. . A young Iranian woman, identified as Neda Soltan, was shot by the Basij and died in front of cameras on Kargar Avenue in Tehran. Highly graphic amateur videos of the killing rapidly spread virally across the internet after being posted to Facebook and YouTube. On 20 June – a day after Khamenei had warned of a brutal reaction if unrest continued – the Tehran ambulance service's internal
Social impact of YouTube spurred protests and related anti-American violence internationally despite official condemnation of the video by U.S. government officials. A cellphone camera video showing the 2009 death of Iranian student Neda Agha-Soltan during the 2009–10 Iranian election protests received a George Polk Award in journalism, the first bestowed to an anonymous work. The video became a symbol of the Iranian opposition movement, the Polk Award's curator saying that the video "became such an important news element in and of itself". The award panel said it wanted to acknowledge the role of ordinary citizens, especially in scenarios in which professional reporters are restricted.