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Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

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271–280 of 325 posts

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Jammers (to my knowledge) operate by actively producing an inverted copy of the signals it actually sees. No. Usually, all you need is to do is to send a signal - any signal - on a frequency you want to jam with enough power to overwhelm the target signal. A directional antenna won't get a milliwatt satellite signal if it starts picking up half a kilowatt of random noise, even if that noise is coming from the side.…

Seems like it'd be pretty straightforward to block signals coming from the side (e.g. by putting some metal or something else similarly RF-blocking between the antenna and the jammer), no? Kinda like how wearing a hat helps keep the sun out of your eyes. Actively jamming the jammer (i.e. inverting the signal received from the jammer side and rebroadcasting on the the antenna side) would help, too, though this probabl…

> Seems like it'd be pretty straightforward to block signals coming from the side (e.g. by putting some metal or something else similarly RF-blocking between the antenna and the jammer), no?

Depends on the wavelength and your surroundings. Imagine yourself wearing a cap that's little too small and half-transparent on the edges, walking on fresh snow, surrounded by snow mounds, trying to spot something on one of the hilltops nearby. So the cap mostly protects you from direct jamming signal, but reflections and bleed are still painful.

Now we're talking here about satellites, in particular LEO satellites, so you need a mass market (or at least commercial-grade) tracking antenna, which will have to look all across the sky and not just point straight up. In urban environments, there's a great chance there will be scores of decent reflectors (buildings) all around you for the jamming signal to bounce off, and as for bands, the ones used by Starlink are ones that are unlikely to be used much for anything else in places like Iraq - so they may as well just jam the whole band. And since Starlink is a commercial service, you won't be able to switch to something the government depends on (not to mention procure new antennas and adjust software on the transceivers).

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the frequencies and types of antennas used. Doesn't take much to disrupt a radio-based service (people do this by accident, that's why RF regulations exist everywhere). It's not that much of an expense for a government to set up a few antennas and make them put out half a megawatt of noise each.

Such antennas however are an easy target for rockets, grenades, IEDs, car bombs... in a riot situation good luck defending the jammers.

What kind of protests are you imagining? With that kind of ordnance in use, it's no longer a protest but an all-out civil war.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#273
Let's try to deconstruct an oxymoron here: So all these protests are happening because Iraq is blocking a multi million dollar company? Right?

I know it is bad, but there are alternatives and we as people living on this planet should not narrow ourselves down to only one channel of communication that is operating on one channel that is internet.*

And let's face it: because it is so easy to use facebook, people are getting lazy and numb, more and more dumb and numb people scrolling through other peoples shit, they don't try to figure out a more complex system where at the end frees the individual from a controlling state.

Just wake up already.

* Not to mention the fact that facebook reads your messages and all your shit so it can feed you some more shit.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#274
post #225

If you were in Iraq, would there have been any reasonable countermeasures, accessible to the average person, that could have preserved access? Or is it limited to something like a sat phone/sat internet?

It's not apparent from the article if phone calls are blocked. It's probably not cheap, and it's certainly easy to track, but you can run data over international voice calls. Probably works better on a real landline, but should work a bit over mobile too.

You'd have to know a modem pool to call and have an account there, I wouldn't even know where to start. Especially if I was already cut off from the Internet.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And Europe has to pick up the pieces in terms of refugees For us (Europe) this is essentially dress rehearsal for upcoming climate-related migrations, and it turns out we're not handling it well.

What would handling it “well” mean?

Not dividing population into two sides on the refugee issue, not breeding so high level of internal resentment. Having a bit more united front on the issue. I'm half-convinced that the way the current refugee crisis ended up being handled was much more disruptive to our internal politics than just letting them all in would be to our economies.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And Europe has to pick up the pieces in terms of refugees For us (Europe) this is essentially dress rehearsal for upcoming climate-related migrations, and it turns out we're not handling it well.

Handled it pretty well imo

Well in the sense that it didn't end up being a comparably large humanitarian crisis on our borders, and that we didn't break the Union into pieces (though the tensions created may well lead to that).

Not well in the sense that when the same thing happens again with climate refugees, only 10-100x the size, I don't see us surviving.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#277

Let's try to deconstruct an oxymoron here: So all these protests are happening because Iraq is blocking a multi million dollar company? Right? I know it is bad, but there are alternatives and we as people living on this planet should not narrow ourselves down to only one channel of communication that is operating on one channel that is internet.* And let's face it: because it is so easy to use facebook, people are ge…

Stop reading just the headlines. They are protesting against poor government performance, corruption, and all of this stuff. Iraqi government shuts down the internet as they want, in this case, possibly, to stop the protesters from organising.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iraq is a basket case country whose government is hanging on by a thread. China is a superpower with clear aspirations to unipolar hegemony. They are not comparable and cannot be held to the same standard.

Iraq used to not be a basket case country until it was invaded by the unipolar hegemony.

What nonsense. Iraq has been a shitshow for a very, very long time. And I'm not endorsing the war in any way.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iraq is a basket case country whose government is hanging on by a thread. China is a superpower with clear aspirations to unipolar hegemony. They are not comparable and cannot be held to the same standard.

Iraq used to not be a basket case country until it was invaded by the unipolar hegemony.

Imagine arguing Saddam's Iraq wasn't a basket case country. Iraqi celebrated when he was gone for a reason.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#280
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iraq used to not be a basket case country until it was invaded by the unipolar hegemony.

If you were not part of the governing minority you got brutally suppressed. If you dared to voice a different opinion you got send into prison for a nice round of torture. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The invasion of Iraq was a shit show, but let's not get into history rewriting here: Living in Iraq before the invasion was not some kind of utopia. He was a brutal dictator. And people suffered for it.

>If you were not part of the governing minority you got brutally suppressed. If you dared to voice a different opinion you got send into prison for a nice round of torture. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Maybe, but:

'I toppled Saddam’s statue, now I want him back'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-36712233/i-toppled-sadda...

Elsewhere he said that there are now '1000 Saddams'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadhem_Sharif

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