Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at supreme leader

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 199 posts

Re: Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at supreme leader

#41

Post by arp242 »

quotz wrote: post #33
arp242 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work on an organisation that does anti-corruption reporting. We have some software for that and the search box has "Vladimir Putin, TeliaSonera" as a placeholder example. Few months back a new hire quit on his second day when he saw that, because he was afraid he might get into trouble since he has to regularly travel to Russia (he was from, eh, somewhere in Eastern Europe or the Balkans or some such – I forgot). W…

If he was from the balkans his reason was definitely false and he just didnt wanna work at your place. We dont have that here, especially not for leaders not from our countries

Like I said, I don't recall exactly where he was from and can't be bothered to look it up, because it doesn't matter. But just because most people from location X don't have opinion Y, doesn't mean some don't.

Either way, I certainly don't think he was making stuff up. He could have left at any time without any reason. We weren't holding him captive.

Re: Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at supreme leader

#42

Post by feedforward »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #36

I'm not defending Iran over this, I fully expect his imprisonment to be for a reason I would consider bullshit, but this article doesn't present much evidence that the two events in the title have any connection. He tweeted a dot, at some point after was arrested. Technically the article never says the dot is related to the arrest, but it's certainly implied.

In 2010 there was an international campaign of clemency for an Iranian woman who was going to get the death penalty. The campaign said she was imprisoned for adultery. She was in prison for adultery - and also murdering her husband, with her lover's help. This part was always left out of the news reports on this, at least initially.

Re: Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at supreme leader

#43

Post by userbinator »

DataDive wrote: post #2

And if you dare to use Twitter in Brazil, you will be fined a year's salary. ... how authoritarianism shapes public discourse

VPN services are also officially banned in China (except for a small number of exceptions), but everyone who knows even the slightest about tech probably uses one.

"It's only illegal if you get caught."

Re: Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at supreme leader

#44

Post by eigenket »

throw10920 wrote: post #32

It's worth pointing out that similar stuff (although not quite as egregious) is happening in Belarus, Brazil, and even the UK.

Could you point to something happening in the UK you think is similar to this?

Edit: I guess there's this [1] which free-speach maximalists would probably disagree with. Personally I think there's a line between free speech and calls to violence at which point its reasonable to prosecute people. She tweeted calling for people to set fire to buildings where migrants were being housed.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2910vrrygo

Re: Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at supreme leader

#45

Post by chasil »

christiangenco wrote: post #26

I've been thinking a lot recently about where I would personally draw the line on what sorts of speech should be criminal. If someone publicly called for specific violence (ex: "let's all meet at Joe's house to burn it down—I'll bring the lighter") that feels to me like the sort of thing that would be useful to do something about instead of waiting for the actual crime to be committed. But publicly stating that you s…

You might investigate the current standard in the U.S., developed by the supreme court, known as Imminent Lawless Action.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imminent_lawless_action

This replaced the previous standard, Clear and Present Danger.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_and_present_danger

Re: Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at supreme leader

#46

Post by philipov »

christiangenco wrote: post #26

I've been thinking a lot recently about where I would personally draw the line on what sorts of speech should be criminal. If someone publicly called for specific violence (ex: "let's all meet at Joe's house to burn it down—I'll bring the lighter") that feels to me like the sort of thing that would be useful to do something about instead of waiting for the actual crime to be committed. But publicly stating that you s…

> I don't see how we could possibly criminalize anything like that without neutering the ability for a society to come up with new ideas.

But isn't that exactly the point of policies like this? They're intended to dissuade new ideas, such as ideas about who should be in charge of society.

Re: Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at supreme leader

#47

Post by gruez »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #31
SR2Z wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only ways for a service to be banned in the US are by court order (i.e. judge says the site has to come down) which carries no penalties for visitors, and sanctions in which case visiting is generally still OK but paying the site is a no-no. In general, users never face fines in the US even for visiting "banned" pages.

Can you visit a Pro North Korea/ISIS/Iran website? You are kind of paying/circumventing sanctions with potential ad revenue.

>Can you visit a Pro North Korea/ISIS/Iran website?

How about the website for Iran's supreme leader[1], with headlines like "ZIONIST REGIME FACES SEVERE CONSEQUENCES FOR ITS ACTIONS"? It's not blocked in the US.

[1] https://www.leader.ir/en

Re: Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at supreme leader

#48

Post by thomassmith65 »

brendoelfrendo wrote: post #21
forloni wrote: post #13

[flagged]

"CIA front" is a weird thing to say. It's openly funded by the US Government, so it's not like Radio Free Europe's affiliation is a secret or a conspiracy; we don't need to exaggerate for effect here. Anyway, his lawyer also spoke to a newspaper in Iran, so I think it's hard to argue that he was arrested and tried for something. Whether it was specifically for the dot thing is, I guess, the main thing that one could…

It's true if we go back to 1949. It's hardly a bad thing though: RFE provided news from the outside world to those living under Soviet censorship.

Re: Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at supreme leader

#49

Post by throw10920 »

eigenket wrote: post #44
throw10920 wrote: post #32

It's worth pointing out that similar stuff (although not quite as egregious) is happening in Belarus, Brazil, and even the UK.

Could you point to something happening in the UK you think is similar to this? Edit: I guess there's this [1] which free-speach maximalists would probably disagree with. Personally I think there's a line between free speech and calls to violence at which point its reasonable to prosecute people. She tweeted calling for people to set fire to buildings where migrants were being housed. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/arti…

[flagged]

Re: Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at supreme leader

#50

Post by parhamn »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #36

I'm not defending Iran over this, I fully expect his imprisonment to be for a reason I would consider bullshit, but this article doesn't present much evidence that the two events in the title have any connection. He tweeted a dot, at some point after was arrested. Technically the article never says the dot is related to the arrest, but it's certainly implied.

> Technically the article never says the dot is related to the arrest, but it's certainly implied.

Given the last sentence of the article is "The prosecutor’s office in Ardabil alleged that Shanbehzadeh had been in contact with Israeli intelligence officers and was arrested when trying to leave the country, according to Voice of America." it's not even implied.

Post reply on HN