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As unrest grows, Iran restricts access to Instagram, WhatsApp

reuters.com

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

#121

Post by ffk »

wyldfire wrote: post #100
lupire wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is illegal in USA for Meta to pay fines to Iran government. The government is blocking at network level anyway. The app provider should detect the network outage and provide a good UI, not proactively block users who aren't using the affected network at all.

> The app provider should detect the network outage and provide a good UI, Can the blocking be adequately distinguished from packet loss? If not it seems like it would be embarrassing for the app to declare Government blockage when it's not really the case.

It’s probably validated by a human before the message is deployed.

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

#122

Post by rodolphoarruda »

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.

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

#123

Post by suoduandao2 »

edsimpson wrote: post #53

Just a reminder that Signal supports both censorship circumvention and independently hosted proxies (e.g. Search Twitter, etc. for proxy links using the #IRanASignalProxy hashtag.) https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360056052052-Pr...

I believe Telegram is the private messaging app of choice within Iran.

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

#125

Post by prox »

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.

It’s been in the news here (w-europe) a lot and in conversations with colleagues! I also think it’s a worldwide struggle for self determination for women, especially in countries that are run or dominated by men.

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

#126

Post by rjsw »

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.

There have been daily reports on the Guardian website.

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

#127

Post by 5pComb »

WHATDOESIT wrote: post #67
sriram_malhar wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure repressive governments will make it illegal to use phones that can connect to Starlink. Satellite phones are banned in India, for example. You will be arrested for a lot longer for owning a satellite phone than if you owned a gun illegally.

Let's see the governments try to ban iPhone. What a nice revolution trigger.

They already tried: https://www.globaltradealert.org/intervention/80877/import-b...

From the same site: Iran smartphone imports (sept 2021 - sept 2022)

1 Samsung 48% 2 Xiaomi 28% 3 Nokia 12% 4 Apple 6%

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

#128

Post by Abekkus »

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.

Building a resilient p2p service on the internet doesn't just require not using big name SaaS, it means building that service to not need the WebCAs or even DNS, two core services that are anything but p2p. I honestly don't know of any applications that require neither.

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

#129

Post by toyg »

nindalf wrote: post #114
stickfigure wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is zero chance that FB/Meta is complicit in this. The occam's razor answer is that the Iranian government has figured out an attack, and a bunch of FB employees are frantically trying to mitigate it instead of reading HN.

I doubt Iran needs to go to the extent of hacking Meta to block a few random users in Italy? They've achieved their main aim of quelling protests by simply blocking at the network level. I'm skeptical about the original bug report.

There are tons of Iranians abroad, figuring out a way to cut them off from the local population is definitely a worthy goal for the regime.

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

#130

Post by sriram_malhar »

WHATDOESIT wrote: post #81
lupire wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Iranians can't afford iPhones.

New iPhones. It's very common to buy secondhand in these markets. The satellite-able ones will need some time to "trickle down" but it's going to happen - especially if it offers this feature.

They'll just declare it a satellite phone and defect make them illegal.

I mean, we are discussing hair here, so it is a (bitter) laugh to imagine that they are going to let citizens have access to an unfettered network ...

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