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

Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

restofworld.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 391 posts

Re: Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

#151

Post by feverzsj »

p0w3n3d wrote: post #51
culi wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have they though? Everybody I know who grew up in China has told me its trivial to bypass restrictions with VPNs

The question is what do you win when found using VPN?

You phone and computer will be checked thoroughly using automated tools. If they didn't find any sensitive keyword, you'll be fined and recorded in the system. If they find something, a detention for at least 3 days or ... forever.

That's the standard procedure. But polices in developed areas usually treat them like antragsdelikte(no trial without a complaint).

Re: Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

#152

Post by fc417fc802 »

cryptoegorophy wrote: post #16

Spacex satellites blockage was the surprise. How did they do it? I thought it would be the best dooms day kind of insurance. Turns out not.

Supposedly it's high packet loss but still available to at least some extent. Or at least it was initially? Really highlights the importance of low bandwidth P2P capable messaging systems that support caching messages for later delivery as well as multiple underlying transports.

Re: Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

#153

Post by dreambuffer »

alibarber wrote: post #120
jraby3 wrote: post #102

[flagged]

There is some evidence to suggest that certain countries (Russia, China, Iran itself) have an incentive to use the Gaza conflict to cause disunity in the west - and hence keep it in the news cycle and public opinion. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/technology/israel-hamas-i... Interestingly, during the last internet blackout in Iran, a lot of the pro Scottish independence X accounts went quiet too: https://en.wiki…

If it is that easy for foreign governments to influence the very thoughts people have day-to-day, then something is extremely broken in your system and nearly all the blame is on your government for allowing that to happen.

Re: Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

#154

Post by otherme123 »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #4
weikju wrote: post #2

… while every other country waits to see how it goes while drafting plans to emulate this

I mean... EU already blocks eg. some russian sites (some countries more effectively than others)... plus all the chat control pressures every year. Spain is blocking whole blocks of internet during football matches. UK is making you "show your ID card" to jerk off. But every such country likes pointing fingers at others, "hey, our censorship is not bad, they have more of it!". edit: considering the downvotes, HN is n…

> Spain is blocking whole blocks of internet during football matches.

Lets make this clear: "Spain" is not blocking, some ISP companies which have many users ask the judge for permission to block IP ranges because they are streaming football matches. The judge agrees (they don't seem to know how Cloudflare works), so the ISPs are the ones that are blocking their own users to access sites behind Cloudflare. As they have millions of users, the block feels huge, but it is not issued by the government.

I am not a customer of those ISP, so my internet isn't disrupted at all during football matches. Some services, like annas-archive and torrent sites, are intermittently blocked, but you can easily avoid the blocks just by switching DNS server to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8.

Re: Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

#155

Post by littlecranky67 »

randomNumber7 wrote: post #150
littlecranky67 wrote: post #59

There must be so much video footage from smartphones during the demonstations that show gruesome killings and masacres, the iranian elites have to make sure this footage never sees the rest of the world. They have to ban the internet forever.

They likely try to find and remove a lot of these videos (and their owners) before turning on the internet.

From the phones, computers, usb sticks and SD cards of millions of people?

Re: Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

#156

Post by hagbard_c »

orwin wrote: post #144
FilosofumRex wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Khomenei is called the "supreme leader" since 89. His predecessor betrayed his allies by wording a referendum for the abolition of the monarchy weirdly, making it instead about the installation of a theocracy. (i don't want to make it overly political, but once again the historical materialist offshots of the revolutionary groups are the only ones who understood the betrayal and called a boycott of this referendum. P…

It was the same "Marxists" who helped Khomeini gain power so by all means observe Marxists but only to understand where they are trying to lead society so you can be ready to limit the amount of damage they'll do. Lenin is supposed to have called these people 'useful idiots', useful to create societal upheaval because they are so easy to lead and eager to follow but for that same reason they should be neutralised once the Party has gained power. Lenin and Stalin tended to just kill them or sent them into the GULAG, Mao sent them to the countryside, Khomeini followed Lenin and Stalin in getting rid of the Marxist students who helped push the revolution.

Re: Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

#157

Post by alibarber »

dreambuffer wrote: post #153
alibarber wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is some evidence to suggest that certain countries (Russia, China, Iran itself) have an incentive to use the Gaza conflict to cause disunity in the west - and hence keep it in the news cycle and public opinion. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/technology/israel-hamas-i... Interestingly, during the last internet blackout in Iran, a lot of the pro Scottish independence X accounts went quiet too: https://en.wiki…

If it is that easy for foreign governments to influence the very thoughts people have day-to-day, then something is extremely broken in your system and nearly all the blame is on your government for allowing that to happen.

It sounds like the Iranian government have indeed taken steps to make it harder for their population to be influenced.

Re: Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

#158

Post by avadodin »

jraby3 wrote: post #102

[flagged]

It's not even in the same ballpark.

0.03% of Iranians vs 3% of Gazans.

I think we can all agree that Iran shouldn't be massacring its own nationals even if as the government claims they are foreign-influenced, but don't use this as a platform to push an agenda that harms even your own cause.

Re: Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

#159

Post by gambutin »

miki123211 wrote: post #133
jraby3 wrote: post #102

[flagged]

A situation only gets press when people disagree about it[1]. George Floyd got a lot because he was a borderline case, an innocent man shot by police for some, a criminal who got what he deserved for others. That creates tension. That creates arguments. "local cop shoots innocent 80-year-old woman carrying groceries" is a story for a day at best, then the cop gets punished and we move on. Gaza is the same. You have o…

[dead]

Re: Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

#160

Post by perihelions »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #4
weikju wrote: post #2

… while every other country waits to see how it goes while drafting plans to emulate this

I mean... EU already blocks eg. some russian sites (some countries more effectively than others)... plus all the chat control pressures every year. Spain is blocking whole blocks of internet during football matches. UK is making you "show your ID card" to jerk off. But every such country likes pointing fingers at others, "hey, our censorship is not bad, they have more of it!". edit: considering the downvotes, HN is n…

An even more apt analogy is France in New Caledonia. Back in 2024, the French territorial government used an anti-terrorism law to enforce DNS blocks in that overseas territory, for the express purpose of suppressing political protests (by New Caledonians angry at the French mainland government).

> "Philippe Gomes, the former president of New Caledonia's government, told POLITICO the decision aimed to stop protesters from "organizing reunions and protests" through the app."

[0] https://www.politico.eu/article/french-tiktok-ban-new-caledo...

This is the only example I'm aware of (are there others?) of a Western government effecting internet censorship to suppress protests. (Though the article also mentions Macron considering (but rejecting) the same idea in France, to suppress protests following a police shooting. See also[1])

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36599726 ("Macron floats social media cuts during riots", 105 comments)

edit: There was also an incident in San Francisco way back in 2011,

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2879546 ("San Francisco Subway Muzzles Cell Service During Protest", 113 comments)

Post reply on HN