From stealth blackout to whitelisting: Inside the Iranian shutdown

Post by gsf_emergency_6 » Thu, Jan 22, 2026, 6:37 AM UTC

alephnerd wrote: post #9

baxtr wrote: post #8

> Had authorities withdrawn IPv4 routes, as they did with IPv6, Iran would have become completely unreachable, as Egypt was in January 2011. By keeping IPv4 routes in circulation, Iranian authorities can selectively grant full internet access to specific users while denying it to the broader population. As of late, we’ve seen a few measures like the restoration of transit from Rostelecom and the return of routes orig…

That's pretty much their plan - to create an Internet-e-Paak or "Pure" Internet. This all started back during the Green Revolution.

Post by alephnerd » Thu, Jan 22, 2026, 6:52 AM UTC

jimbohn wrote: post #12

alephnerd wrote: post #3

Iran has been rolling out the National Information Network (essentially a whitelisted internet) for a couple years now after the Green Revolution [0]. Iran has a surprisingly robust domestic ecosystem of hyperscalers [1] and telco infra [6][7] built out over the past decade with limited outside involvement and a severe sanctions regime, and have even started exporting Iranian IT services to Uganda [2], Kenya [3], Sou…

Kinda envious of them that, due to sanctions, they end up with hyperscalers. Europe will never get hyperscales while being too tight with the US, and any protectionism at the service industry level would make the US go more mental than it already is.

Post by jimbohn » Thu, Jan 22, 2026, 7:01 AM UTC

alephnerd wrote: post #13

jimbohn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda envious of them that, due to sanctions, they end up with hyperscalers. Europe will never get hyperscales while being too tight with the US, and any protectionism at the service industry level would make the US go more mental than it already is.

It's not only because of sanctions. It's primarily because their leadership have deeply technical backgrounds. Most of my peers who ended up in policymaking roles in Europe (and in some cases the levers of power) all had a humanities or legal background and never worked in or adjacent to the tech industry. Assuming Iran didn't follow the path that it did, Iran would have also ended up becoming a tech hub like Israel…

Post by jimbohn » Thu, Jan 22, 2026, 7:05 AM UTC

gsf_emergency_6 wrote: post #14

jimbohn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda envious of them that, due to sanctions, they end up with hyperscalers. Europe will never get hyperscales while being too tight with the US, and any protectionism at the service industry level would make the US go more mental than it already is.

A subtle reason for preferring negotiations towards mutually beneficial ends-- sanctions can supercharge tech adoption

Post by larodi » Thu, Jan 22, 2026, 7:09 AM UTC

jimbohn wrote: post #15

alephnerd wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not only because of sanctions. It's primarily because their leadership have deeply technical backgrounds. Most of my peers who ended up in policymaking roles in Europe (and in some cases the levers of power) all had a humanities or legal background and never worked in or adjacent to the tech industry. Assuming Iran didn't follow the path that it did, Iran would have also ended up becoming a tech hub like Israel…

Agree with you on pretty much everything you have said. The background of policymakers in Europe really annoys me. Just to be clear, I wasn't glazing Iran or anything.