[HN Gopher] Tell HN: A hacker's life is in danger, your awarenes...
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Tell HN: A hacker's life is in danger, your awareness may be life
saving
It's been a month that Jadi (real name: Amir Emad Mirmirani), an
Iranian geek, has been imprisoned in Iran's most notorious prison
called Evin in Tehran. In Iran, he is one of the most famous
people active in the field of programming and computer education.
In his personal blog[0], he has been writing about technology and
society for years. He has also a YouTube channel[1][2] to teach and
encourage Iranians to programming and Linux, and a podcast[3] that
has been explaining technology and science news along with his
comments for several years. All this in a country with a
dictatorial government where standing in the right place has a
heavy price. His arrest occurred on October 5, a few days after
the recent nationwide protests[4] began in Iran. Arrest at home
with beating. The reason for this is not yet clear, but it is
probably due to his efforts to increase awareness of the society
about Iran's internet censorship system, and his positions against
a company called ArvanCloud. Many claim this company help the
government of Iran in implementing the internet censorship's system
(something like Great Firewall of China). In Jadi's own words, this
company has made it possible for the government to turn the
Internet into an intranet at any moment and block people's access
to international services. Something that happens in every
demonstration in Iran including right now. The reason I am writing
here is to raise awareness about him, which may lead to his
release. All this may be nothing more than a false hope, but it is
what I can do. From the news he covered in his podcast, it could be
guessed that he is one of the regular readers of Hacker News.
Perhaps hearing your support here will boost his morale behind bars
in Evin. The prison which is also known as Evin University due to
the number of educated political prisoners [5]. [0](Persian)
https://jadi.net/ [1](Persian)
https://www.youtube.com/jadimirmirani [2](English)
https://www.youtube.com/geekingjadi [3](Persian) https://castbox.f
m/channel/%D9%BE%D8%A7%D8%AF%DA%A9%D8%B3%D8%AA-%E2%80%93-%D8%AC%D8%
A7%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%86%D8%AA-%7C-%DA%A9%DB%8C%D8%
A8%D8%B1%D8%AF-%D8%A2%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AF-id22150?country=us [4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahsa_Amini_protests [5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evin_Prison
Author : michaeltimo
Score : 772 points
Date : 2022-11-05 18:25 UTC (4 hours ago)
| TheRealQuestion wrote:
| Before making an appeal to save foreign hackers, how about that
| one guy who exposed the total corruption of our western elite and
| is still rotting in prison for no moral wrongdoing. Where's my
| Free Julian Assange topic? HN is truly disgusting/compromised.
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
| recuter wrote:
| > The reason I am writing here is to raise awareness about him,
| which may lead to his release.
|
| I understand that you are desperately trying to help him but you
| need to think very carefully about unintended consequences in
| these situations. I don't have specific advice I would want to
| post here.
|
| I do have a question that has been on my mind: these protests
| seem to be spontaneous and the crackdown spastic - I don't get
| how people like Jadi allowed themselves to be caught in the first
| place as he has the skillset to avoid detection.
|
| Why did he ever post anything under his real name? How did he not
| see the arrest coming? Why is everything so disorganized at this
| seemingly late stage?
|
| Anyway, I wish him and you the best of luck.
|
| P.S. - There is a lot of interesting none-philosophical reading
| material produced in the US and elsewhere during the
| counterculture era that you might find extremely useful more
| directly than the well wishing going on in this thread.
|
| P.P.S - For people who are taking this as some sort of debbie
| downer comment understand that there are reports not only of
| teenagers being incarcerated but show trials and impending death
| sentences. Sadly, you can expect some people like Jadi will be
| made an example of - this isn't a game.
| ninefathom wrote:
| I've had the privilege in the past of working with a small number
| of Irani technology professionals, and I found these particular
| individuals to be some of the most capable and well-rounded in
| the entirety of my experience with the global technology field.
|
| The idea of any of those individuals sitting in prison for
| political reasons turns my stomach.
| [deleted]
| breck wrote:
| I can't find a Git or GitHub account for him. Any ideas?
| layer8 wrote:
| Probably https://github.com/jadijadi. I googled for "jadi
| github".
| 31337Logic wrote:
| Thanks for doing this.
| tsycho wrote:
| How can we help?
| YetAnotherNick wrote:
| 1. If you know someone from mainstream media, let them know
| this
|
| 2. If you know someone influential from country that Iran
| trades with, let them know. It is bit difficult as no country
| in Western world trades with Iran. And China doesn't give two
| shits about human rights abuse, same with India. South Korea
| and Turkey are the largest importer after those.
|
| 3. Upvote so that chances of someone who could help with first
| two could see this thread.
| snickerer wrote:
| I would add:
|
| 4. Don't talk only to "influencers" -- also talk to your co-
| workers, your neighbours, your internet community. Raise
| awareness.
|
| 5. Don't just "talk to". Ask. Ask (exiled) Iranians what they
| think about the situation.
|
| I was traveling around in Iran for some months, and one big
| takeway for me was that there is a huge gap between the
| highly educated, incredibly friendly and open-minded
| population and their cruel medieval rulers. I still don't
| really understand the historical situation in which the
| mullahs were able to come to power.
| watwut wrote:
| > I still don't really understand the historical situation
| in which the mullahs were able to come to power.
|
| Easy. There was US sponsored coup against democratically
| elected government. It strengthened monarchy which was then
| seen as illegitimate by large parts of population. It also
| made the same parts of population dislike and distrust
| Americans.
|
| So when there was yet another coup, many people supported
| it. A lot of those people ended up on the bad side of
| mullahs (like politically or career oriented women). But
| original support was support "against" rather then pro.
| wwtrv wrote:
| The problem is that the majority of people in Iran seem
| to support the islamists, that was the case since and
| before 1979.
|
| I'm not trying to justify the coup but there is no way
| most people would consider the elections in 1952 to be
| democratic by modern standards. Mossadegh ignored half of
| the votes (primarily in rural areas), all the MPs elected
| in Kurdish areas were barred from taking their seats.
| They actually simply stopped counting when the government
| got a favorable result. It wasn't that different from the
| elections in Poland in 1947 or in any Eastern European
| country where socialist/communist parties 'won' the
| elections
| whearyou wrote:
| What about the part where they purged and executed every
| one of their allies - socialists, liberals, even opposing
| cliques in their own theocracy - after the overthrew the
| Shah?
| pencilguin wrote:
| They learned that from Stalin. He even purged all the
| communists.
| mmaunder wrote:
| This is the right question. Are people in his situation ever
| set free? What is the most common way this occurs? We can't
| invade Iran. Do they ever bow to social pressure of any kind?
| Is there some other form of pressure or influence that can be
| exerted to secure his release? OP you know the terrain and
| norms there better than us. So how can we help?
| koyanisqatsi wrote:
| There is nothing anyone here can do about the situation.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| The US, or Israel, or Saudi could probably negotiate a
| prisoner release. However, the price could be releasing
| some Iranian who's imprisoned there, at the very least.
| koyanisqatsi wrote:
| That's incredibly naive.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| Would you like to explain how it's naive?
| koyanisqatsi wrote:
| Certainly but I have a question for you as well. What
| organization do you donate money to and is Amnesty
| International among them [1]?
|
| 1: https://www.amnesty.org/en/donate/.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| My donations are my own business.
| michaeltimo wrote:
| We are talking about a ruthless government, which is hard to
| predict, but what has been proven in the past is that being
| not famous or not covering by the media can end very badly
| [0]. On the other hand, raising awareness in the past has
| saved people's lives. An example I remember was physics
| researcher Omid Kokabi [1], who was finally released from
| Evin prison after years of pressure from the international
| community.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sattar_Beheshti
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omid_Kokabee
| emilsedgh wrote:
| Yes. Media attention does bring a level of accountability and
| pressure to the system and in cases has pressed them into a
| little more transparent due process.
| xvector wrote:
| The Iranian authorities ought to be destroyed.
| jimbobthemighty wrote:
| There is a new hope.
| fazfq wrote:
| Spoken like a true American. When you fail, are you going to
| run back with your tail between your legs like in Afghanistan?
| kolpazan wrote:
| Jadi, I am sure you will make Evin the best Hacker School of
| Iran. I wish I could do more thn few words
| senand wrote:
| All the best to Jadi
| ethotool wrote:
| I feel for these individuals who are suffering but let's be
| clear.
|
| This attempt at overthrowing the regime in Iran with the help of
| the western media is probably not going to work. This is not the
| first time that it's been attempted. If you're willing to stand
| against your own government then you're definitely brave but you
| will likely deal with the consequences no matter where you're
| from. And that's not something anyone can help with.
|
| I posted this a few months back and I was downvoted but I'll say
| it again. It's important that we all remain neutral and promote
| non-interventalisim on this platform. One life harmed or lost is
| not worth it!
| trhr wrote:
| We can't light the spark for them, but we can help fan the
| flames.
| pessimizer wrote:
| The last thing we should be doing is fanning flames in
| matters of life and death. Especially from the couch.
| ShredKazoo wrote:
| This appears to be a good subreddit for following protests and
| other developments: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewIran/
| renewiltord wrote:
| Is there an action I can take?
| trhr wrote:
| Yeah, you can stop supporting censorship.
|
| Facebook, Twitter, Reddit et al are modern censorship
| platforms. I know that saying that violates liberal dogma, but
| it's true. You could probably even go so far as to say cancel
| culture is a censorship platform, particularly when it's
| misused.
|
| The problem with censorship is that it stifles intellectualism.
| Intellectuals have always cut against the grain and said crazy
| shit in essays, much like I'm saying now. It's the sort of
| crazy shit that challenges your worldview, and it's natural to
| want to downvote, report, and have that content removed from
| your platform of choice.
|
| But intellectualism is the only thing that can create a
| revolution.
|
| And politically-correct censorship is getting all the
| intellectuals silenced (along with all the actual idiots).
|
| Now, what's it mean to "stop supporting censorship?" Everybody
| agrees that, as private platforms, these companies have the
| right to moderate and remove any speech that they choose. The
| problem is that they're also seeking protections under Section
| 230, which says "Internet companies that don't moderate their
| content can't be responsible for their content." This creates a
| dilemma, especially when these companies have created an
| oligopoly surrounding online speech.
|
| We need legislation that establishes the public forums and
| discussion areas on these providers as public utilities so that
| their users receive first amendment protections under the
| Constitution. This still allows them to remove content that
| violates the first amendment - like incitement - but would
| otherwise reclaim the internet as the world's largest mass free
| speech zone.
| krapp wrote:
| >"Hate speech can't exist on the internet, because words on a
| computer screen cannot physically threaten you."
|
| If this is an example of the "intellectualism" you're
| championing, then honestly nothing of value was lost.
| trhr wrote:
| I edited to remove this, because it detracts from the
| point, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has
| specifically ruled that ALL hate speech legislation in the
| U.S. is unconstitutional.
|
| Whether or not "nothing of value was lost" depends on how
| much you value the freedom of Iranians.
|
| Personally, I only downvote content that violates the rules
| or is spam. Since a downvote is the first step to having
| content hidden, downvoting things just because you disagree
| with them makes you a censor. That's not a good thing to
| be, yet the companies offering downvotes know about and
| encourage this behavior. Don't you ever wonder why? State
| actors routinely use these tools to silence their critics,
| and yet you play ball.
| krapp wrote:
| You're not being persecuted by state actors. Your views,
| as far as I can tell, aren't even that heterodox.
|
| But trying to derail a thread about an actual dissident
| to focus on cancel culture and deplatforming is obnoxious
| and worth the crits you're taking, IMO. If that serves
| some dark CIA agenda, I guess I'll have to take that
| risk.
| koyanisqatsi wrote:
| There isn't. No one on HN has any influence over Iranian
| happenings.
| nnoitra wrote:
| Retr0id wrote:
| At the very least, we can assist Iranian citizens in evading
| digital censorship and surveillance.
| koyanisqatsi wrote:
| That's not their problem. Their problem is an oppressive
| government and people who can't get organized enough to
| make a difference, very similar to the US.
|
| No one outside of Iran can solve their problems for them,
| just like no one outside of the US can solve US problems.
| Retr0id wrote:
| > people who can't get organized enough to make a
| difference
|
| In large part due to the aforementioned censorship and
| surveillance.
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| > Their problem is an oppressive government and people
| who can't get organized enough to make a difference, very
| similar to the US.
|
| Thanks for bringing the parallels in the US to my
| attention. Really, I had no idea that the US was so
| similar to Iran. You are doing this this topic a great
| service by not using hyperbole.
| vkou wrote:
| Suppose that there was an American handball player who
| was incarcerated unfairly, say, for bringing Schedule 1
| drugs for personal use into the United States, how
| exactly would/should anyone outside of the United States
| apply public pressure to secure their release?
| mrpf1ster wrote:
| Stay strong Jadi
| jimbobthemighty wrote:
| [deleted]
| melony wrote:
| This thread will make things worse. When you raise a person's
| profile, the state won't stand idly by. You will end up with
| another Assange or Snowden. If this thread snowballs, the Iranian
| government will make an example out of him purely for the sake of
| it. In other words, your virtue signaling is going to get him
| killed.
|
| If you truly care, for whatever reason, reach out to your
| contacts in the country and grease a few palms. Those countries
| are poor and easily bribed. But if you raise too much awareness,
| then his freedom would be beyond bribes and diplomatic pressure.
| amir734jj wrote:
| Wrong! the regime in Iran is terrorist. They have no mercy.
| Negotiating/bribing will not work. The only thing they
| understand is international pressure and money.
|
| Source: I am an Iranian
| nnoitra wrote:
| emilsedgh wrote:
| I have a lot of activist friends in Iran who has been
| previously arrested. It is well known amongst all Iran
| activists that media attention helps bringing more transparency
| and due process.
| doron2402 wrote:
| Thanks for posting this. Sending my thoughts and prayers to all
| Iranian
| v0xer wrote:
| thanks
| millzlane wrote:
| Also their name, among others is mentioned on this thread
| https://www.reddit.com/r/UnitedNations/comments/yebv7u/iran_...
|
| EFF also has an article.
| https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/10/stop-persecution-irani...
| OJFord wrote:
| It's interesting to me having recently slightly broken a few
| years' stint of largely ignoring 'the news', at least more than I
| have for ages, that I've heard about the protests in Iran _twice_
| via HN now (previously via Rust 1.65 release note:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33451359) and not at all
| from the newspapers I've read.
|
| (I think I'll go back to largely ignoring it, satisfied that HN
| is a perfectly adequate 'jumping off point' for everything worth
| reading, with perhaps better global coverage of the worthy
| stuff.)
| golem14 wrote:
| FWIW, I recommend to replace news surfing by perusing
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events daily.
|
| I'm not quite there yet myself, I sometimes fall in the bad
| habit of news surfing for fun, but I found the wiki portal to
| be sufficient to keep reasonably informed.
| OJFord wrote:
| Thanks - I came across that in reply to a similar comment to
| my own here recently, I do like the idea of it, might try
| that for a while.
| yunohn wrote:
| While Wikipedia is great, that link is more like news
| "trivia" rather than anything substantially informative.
|
| There is absolutely no value to knowing every single
| accident, disaster, political incident, etc happening in
| every country around the world today.
| OJFord wrote:
| But it does let you decide for yourself which have any
| importance to you without enticing you with clickbait
| headlines and images, or pre-filtering for what the
| particular company's editors or owners want you to
| see/think you want to see.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _not at all from the newspapers I 've read._
|
| I find that very interesting, since in the national and local
| newspapers I read in the United States, the Iranian protesters
| have been extensively covered. There were multiple stories each
| day at the beginning, and even now at least two or three each
| week.
|
| In what country are you? Which newspapers are letting you down?
| OJFord wrote:
| That is interesting. I'm in the UK, haven't noticed it at all
| - and I just double-checked The Times (centre-right) and The
| Guardian (centre-left) online homepages, and also grepped
| each for 'Iran' and 'protest'. The only hit was for Iran in
| The Guardian, but that's an article about the war in Ukraine
| - 'Iran says it supplied drones to Russia before war began'.
| layer8 wrote:
| This gives me a lot of hits: https://www.google.com/search?
| q=iran+protests+site:theguardi...
| mellavora wrote:
| I see the merit in avoiding daily news sites, but I spend way
| to much time on HN, and this is the first time I've seen the
| Iran protests mentioned here.
|
| vs almost daily for the last while (week? month?) on CNN.
| layer8 wrote:
| These were on the front page I believe:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33398134
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33371121
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33140237
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33106196
|
| This last one was also about Jadi.
| [deleted]
| gigatexal wrote:
| What can we do? I know his name now but I want to do something.
| AugustusCrunch wrote:
| I'm following the protests. I'm not sure why a cruel and sadistic
| minority can run a country, but it happens. I'm inclined to
| wonder why the US military, pulling out, didn't arm every woman
| and intellectual in the country. I won't forget his name.
| tdeck wrote:
| > I'm inclined to wonder why the US military, pulling out,
| didn't arm every woman and intellectual in the country. I won't
| forget his name.
|
| Because the US wants to back something it can control, not a
| popular movement. The US government backed Iran's prior cruel
| and sadistic minority.
| vinaypai wrote:
| When did the US pull out of Iran?
| yieldcrv wrote:
| 1979
|
| The prior government was installed by the US because the
| government before that wanted to audit BP - the oil company -
| and cant have that!
|
| The only citizens extreme enough to correct this happened to
| also be religious extremists and now they run the country
| ever since
| pessimizer wrote:
| > The only citizens extreme enough to correct this happened
| to also be religious extremists
|
| That's not what happens; it's that in these neo-colonialist
| situations, all secular dissidents can be imprisoned and
| murdered (with US help), but religious dissidents can't
| safely be. So when the revolution succeeds, the religious
| take over. Same thing happened with Morsi in Egypt.
| mehrdada wrote:
| It's not exactly that simple: Islamists (and religion in
| general) is also perceived to be an antidote to Marxism.
| At the height of the Cold War and bordering Soviet Union,
| US resorted to creating and supporting religious groups
| (Taliban v0.1 "Mujahedin" in Afghanistan) and Khomeini in
| Iran.
|
| The Late Shah of Iran is on record constantly warning
| about "Red regression" (referring to Communists) and
| "Black regression" (referring to Islamic fundamentalists)
| as threats of the nation and the 1979 revolution
| succeeded by them joining forces (and the commies got the
| axe afterwards). Funny that in the western world, we are
| seeing the extreme left/woke anti-Americans and the
| Islamists join forces again too, despite being cut of
| very different clothes: the general American left
| narrative is silent on issues of Islam (particularly bad
| when it comes to women and LGBT) as it is against their
| own narrative of fighting "Islamophobia". I doubt this
| ends well.
| dontbenebby wrote:
| Barrin92 wrote:
| because it wasn't a minority. The Iranian revolution had wide
| backing, the Shah was an absolute monarch who came to power in
| a coup. Women and students featured pretty prominently as well.
| Lots of the tactics today like women opposing the military
| directly were used back then too.
| paledot wrote:
| The revolution had a wide backing, but - importantly! - it
| was a revolution _against_ the Shah, not _in favour of_
| Islamic fundamentalism. The hard-liners were merely the most
| prepared to step into the power vacuum that followed.
|
| Calling it the "Islamic Revolution", as state-sponsored
| history books do, is crass revisionism.
| lo2y wrote:
| I am from Yemen, and we are suffering from the same religious
| ideology. The least I can do is upvote this and hope for his safe
| return and freedom for Iran and Iranian people.
| buzzwords wrote:
| When it comes to Iranian government, there are two types of
| people that run it. First group are the fanatic idiots who
| consider themselves at war with the west. They see anyone who who
| is not aligned with their view as enemy and therefore must be
| removed/killed. The second group are opportunists who probably
| have assets abroad and will do and say anything to stay in power
| as long as possible to milk every last penny. I think it's
| important to identify them and their families abroad. Deporting
| their families and freezing their assets inorder to change their
| behaviour.
| pclmulqdq wrote:
| This is very much the case. There are a ton of people in the
| Iranian government and power structure who don't believe in the
| mission, but go along because the money is great.
|
| If the west cracked down on Iran's powerful grifters half as
| hard as it is going after Russian oligarchs, the regime would
| be under a lot of pressure. The oligarchs, in comparison, don't
| seem to mind - they are more afraid of Putin.
| [deleted]
| riku_iki wrote:
| > The reason I am writing here is to raise awareness about him,
| which may lead to his release.
|
| its unlikely Iran government cares about opinions on the HN.
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| It's unlikely anyone thought they did.
| blameitonme wrote:
| I'm a student in India and I discovered him 6-7 months ago and
| have watched many of his videos and learnt a lot, I still suggest
| his channel to friends when topic comes.
|
| It feels weird, like a lot is going through my head but
| realistically I can't do anything.
|
| If you will ever read this jadi, hope you're safe and thanks for
| your teachings. <3
| cleerline wrote:
| let him go
| mathspaniel wrote:
| Please do not do this. There is nothing that anyone on HN can do
| to help, and raising awareness may bring undue attention from the
| Iranian authorities. Although I'm sure this wasn't your intent,
| this thread amounts to rubbernecking of an incarcerated man in a
| perilous situation.
| h4t wrote:
| Does protesting even do any good in a government such as Iran?
| Being present during a protest -- get targeted and locked up or
| worse (killed). It is really doing the oppressors a favor by
| gathering together.Rather than take it to the streets they should
| take it to the basement and plan out calculated attacks and
| disrupt the infrastructure that facilitate their rule.
| slim wrote:
| if they take it to the basement that would mean they are
| conspiring. the government will hear about it and they would be
| in the same situation but with less support since nobody heard
| about them before.
|
| he is not doing anything illegal, he just wants a better life
| for everybody including the guys who jailed him and their
| children. His best bet is that some of those guys would
| understand his motivations and help him.
|
| Now he probably does not fully understand the regime motivation
| and how the police state lives in a paranoia. Not because he's
| stupid, because sometimes the only way out of a situation is to
| trust your opponent with your own life. Sometimes you do what
| your guts tell you to do
| watwut wrote:
| That is called terrorism.
|
| Also, people participate in protests because they feel need to
| do something and are willing to take the risk. It is the "I
| can't stay passive anymore" statement and feeling at large.
|
| And there were succesfull protests. That is how communism
| ended. That is how Ukraine protests kept it democracy back in
| 2014 (rather then allowing it to become Belurussia). And Iran
| had succesfull revolution too, through that one brought
| religious dictatorship.
| cultofmetatron wrote:
| You're Right. Western media is reticent to push that narrative
| because idiots in America will think the same and pull that
| shit here. We're already at a point where half the country
| thinks the last vote was rigged. Wouldn't take a far leap for
| then to take those very steps here.
| [deleted]
| pvg wrote:
| You should look up how the current Iranian regime got in power.
| [deleted]
| TheRealQuestion wrote:
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(page generated 2022-11-05 23:01 UTC)