As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp • Hacker News Board

Re: As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp

#191

Post by wishfish » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 6:02 PM UTC

jimbob45 wrote: post #164

amir734jj wrote: post #98

This protest is very different from previous protests. Look it up. Women in Iran are just tired of being oppressed and their movement is an embodiment of feminism. I'm an Iranian and unfortunately this protest hasn't received world wide attention in the news. This is a first time women taking the lead in protesting against this tyrannical regime.

Iran is geographically two countries away from Israel, the country that clandestinely fomented similar riots/insurrections in 10+ other countries that border Israel during the Arab Spring. Furthermore, Israel has been greatly outspoken in its hatred of Iran and Iran's nuclear program, going so far as to deploy the most sophisticated cyberattack in history[1]. It would hardly be a conspiracy theory to pin this on Isra…

How many major protests have happened in Iran over the past ten years? That's actually a serious question. I remember big ones in 2019. Smaller ones since in the time before the current uprising. Some before 2019 as well. There's tremendous anger beneath the surface in Iran and it's not caused by Mossad.

Iran banned abortion in 1979. There's been a baby boom since. The country is lopsided towards young people. People who don't want the repressive government. They want women to live freely. Many of them want the gay people of their country treated equally. It's an insult to them to say this revolt isn't grassroots. There's so much anger from people who just want to live quiet, normal lives in freedom. Without the rule of clerics and morality police.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a Mossad and/or CIA agent on the ground in Tehran is providing some assistance. That's what they do in times of unrest in an unfriendly country. But "some assistance" is a far cry from fomenting. This is mainly an Iranian effort.

Re: As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp

#192

Post by jimbob45 » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 6:09 PM UTC

davisoneee wrote: post #180

jimbob45 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iran is geographically two countries away from Israel, the country that clandestinely fomented similar riots/insurrections in 10+ other countries that border Israel during the Arab Spring. Furthermore, Israel has been greatly outspoken in its hatred of Iran and Iran's nuclear program, going so far as to deploy the most sophisticated cyberattack in history[1]. It would hardly be a conspiracy theory to pin this on Isra…

Miriam Webster Definition of conspiracy theory : a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators You have no evidence that this is likely to be Israel. Just speculation. This is conspiracy theory by definition.

People are taking my comment out of context. I'm not saying that Israel is 100% for sure behind this. I'm offering an equally likely explanation in response to the individual above who concluded that this was definitely because women randomly decided that they'd had enough.

Was it actually Israel? Was it just angry women? Nobody truly knows, least of all me or GP.

Re: As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp

#193

Post by boeingUH60 » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 6:20 PM UTC

amir734jj wrote: post #98

This protest is very different from previous protests. Look it up. Women in Iran are just tired of being oppressed and their movement is an embodiment of feminism. I'm an Iranian and unfortunately this protest hasn't received world wide attention in the news. This is a first time women taking the lead in protesting against this tyrannical regime.

>This protest hasn't received world wide attention in the news

I'm in faraway Nigeria, and I'm seeing this stuff on the news much against my wishes even.

Re: As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp

#194

Post by davisoneee » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 6:21 PM UTC

jimbob45 wrote: post #192

davisoneee wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Miriam Webster Definition of conspiracy theory : a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators You have no evidence that this is likely to be Israel. Just speculation. This is conspiracy theory by definition.

People are taking my comment out of context. I'm not saying that Israel is 100% for sure behind this. I'm offering an equally likely explanation in response to the individual above who concluded that this was definitely because women randomly decided that they'd had enough. Was it actually Israel? Was it just angry women? Nobody truly knows, least of all me or GP.

There's been a gradual relaxing of adherance to the hijab in Iran for decades, and this year a woman was murdered because of her 'lax' hijab. You are entertaining the idea that this _could_ be an israeli plot, which you don't have evidence for, alongside the idea it's just "angry women". So yes, even _with_ the context, it sounds a lot like you're spouting conspiracy theories behind a veil of "but I'm just asking _'what if'_?"

Re: As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp

#195

Post by davisoneee » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 6:23 PM UTC

caeril wrote: post #174

jimbob45 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iran is geographically two countries away from Israel, the country that clandestinely fomented similar riots/insurrections in 10+ other countries that border Israel during the Arab Spring. Furthermore, Israel has been greatly outspoken in its hatred of Iran and Iran's nuclear program, going so far as to deploy the most sophisticated cyberattack in history[1]. It would hardly be a conspiracy theory to pin this on Isra…

Quoted post unavailable.

Further, editing your message to completely remove all trace of the original is highly disingenuous.

Even if there is strong concern for CIA and Mossad in this situation, do you think your snark does anything to improve the situation? Do you think it brings people towards, or pushes people away from your position? Or perhaps people just read your snark and think "im not going to even fucking pay attention to this guy"? Or is it just for your own shits and giggles?

Re: As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp

#196

Post by boeingUH60 » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

aljgz wrote: post #173

Balgair wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are the protests going where you are? How are the sanctions impacting you as a SWE? Why HN? How was your summer, do anything fun?

I'm no longer living in Iran for a few years, so this is based on my close friends' observations, not mine. People are doing their best and the riots are intensifying. But the riot police is using warfare to scatter them and when it does not work, they fire directly into the crowd, killing and wounding many. People have no way to fight back. Sanctions are a serious problem for a SWE who lives in Iran. It's almost imp…

>While I was working in another country, banks were afraid of opening an account for me and eventually gave me an account with no internet banking and no credit card.

This is something that gets to me about sanctions. It seems they prevent everyday citizens just wanting to work and live from doing so, while the government elites still get to enjoy themselves because they can easily find ways to circumvent it. What's then the point?

Re: As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp

#197

Post by weard_beard » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 6:29 PM UTC

aasasd wrote: post #104

londons_explore wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normally the government (in this case Iran) contacts the service provider (in this case FB/Whatsapp)and lets them know that unless they self-block their service, the government will do blocking at the network level and might issue fines. Normally, that makes the service provider implement blocks on their end, because then at least they can present the user with a sensible error message, and other services that the go…

To my knowledge, Iranian government doesn't have power to dictate FB's actions outside Iran. So FB could block by the IPs, but blocking everywhere by the nationality makes no sense (at least by the standards of a normal person).

I can only send email 500 miles and my nationality seems to impact my cell service

Re: As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp

#198

Post by jlundberg » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 6:34 PM UTC

amir734jj wrote: post #98

This protest is very different from previous protests. Look it up. Women in Iran are just tired of being oppressed and their movement is an embodiment of feminism. I'm an Iranian and unfortunately this protest hasn't received world wide attention in the news. This is a first time women taking the lead in protesting against this tyrannical regime.

Here in Sweden this has also been on the national television news the last two days.

Hopefully this will somehow be a step towards more freedom in Iran.

Re: As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp

#199

Post by adventured » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 6:52 PM UTC

KptMarchewa wrote: post #165

rodolphoarruda wrote: post #122

Oppressive governments must be thankful to all BigTechs able to consolidate userbase and services around a handful of apps. It makes it really easy to switch things on/off when needed. The original purpose of the Internet as being a resilient p2p network for the people has been completely defeated in some nations.

You drastically underestimate power that those oppressive governments have in real world that some fancy decentralized solution would solve. They just take down the internet.

> They just take down the internet.

Or kill a lot of people if they rebel. Which is what Iran did just before the pandemic, and which the media only briefly covered. They machine-gunned people in the streets by the thousands and the West barely batted an eye.

It was as bad as Tiananmen Square in 1989, but you'd never know it going by the media coverage then or since.

Re: As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp

#200

Post by adventured » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 6:58 PM UTC

ailef wrote: post #116

throwayyy479087 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, they won’t be. China has been exporting some really amazing surveillance tools to Iran, NK, Russia that make revolutions basically impossible now. When was the last successful overthrow of a despot in a middle income country? Euromaiden 2014?

Euromaidan 2014 overthrew a democratically elected president.

If that had been a democratically elected regime, Ukraine wouldn't be making the stand it is today vs Russia. Ukraine would have immediately folded under popular domestic pressure to give in to / join up with Russia.