[HN Gopher] Internet outage in Iran reaches 1,008 hours
___________________________________________________________________
Internet outage in Iran reaches 1,008 hours
Author : miadabdi
Score : 141 points
Date : 2026-04-12 11:38 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (mastodon.social)
(TXT) w3m dump (mastodon.social)
| curiousObject wrote:
| That's unbroken 6 weeks of no direct access for almost everyone
|
| Of course information does still get in and out, but that is
| severely throttled
| metalman wrote:
| and during that time those people waging war against Iran,
| murdered one Irainian child every 30 minuits, not counting the
| other children murdered by the genociders in Lebanon, Syria, and
| Palestine.
|
| predictable down vote
|
| but listen up, Iran has made a tactical move in this, but the
| implication is that they, like Afganistan are consideriing a
| strategic move, and many others are watching.
|
| more down voting, which is an excellent demonstration of how the
| internet is used by those that "own" it
| ksajadi wrote:
| - "Everyone is crazy and the way you can tell they are crazy is
| to see if they tell me I am wrong".
|
| - "You are wrong! Everyone is not crazy"
|
| - "You see? I told you. Everyone is crazy"
| metalman wrote:
| you made me smile, because everyone IS crazy, but many of
| them are still decent and kind and can see there own crazy
| enough to make room in the world for others crazyness. and
| then there are the those who espouse the madness of a
| genocidal cultic insanity, or perhaps even more distubing,
| play a cunning game of distraction and apology for murder and
| hate
| reliabilityguy wrote:
| Is Iranian infra centralized on the similar fashion like in
| Belarus?
| alephnerd wrote:
| It's way more centralized.
|
| Iran has been rolling out the National Information Network
| (essentially a whitelisted internet) since the Green Revolution
| [0] back in 2009-12. 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], South Africa [4],
| Venezuela [5], Russia [8], and China [8].
|
| Iran also uses a two-tier SIM card system - ideologically
| vetted individuals get a "white" SIM which gives full
| ingress/egress outside the NIN and others have a normal SIM
| that can be blacklisted from egressing outside the NIN.
|
| Notice how Iranian websites have a page saying "Transferring to
| Website" - that's the gateway page for the NIN.
|
| [0] - https://citizenlab.ca/irans-national-information-network/
|
| [1] - https://www.arvancloud.ir/fa
|
| [2] - https://tvbrics.com/en/news/uganda-and-iran-to-boost-ict-
| co-...
|
| [3] - https://mail.techreviewafrica.com/public/news/1361/kenya-
| and...
|
| [4] -
| https://www.samenacouncil.org/samena_daily_news?news=64545
|
| [5] - https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/08/06/752585/Iranian-
| fibe...
|
| [6] - https://zmc.co.ir/
|
| [7] - https://www.rayafiber.com/en/home
|
| [8] - https://www.kharon.com/brief/iran-sanctions-maximum-
| pressure...
| gambutin wrote:
| Is there a reasonable workaround for this?
| alephnerd wrote:
| Starlink or any other sort of satellite internet, but these
| are relatively easy to jam and detect. There are ways to
| minimize that but obviously not available to civilians.
|
| The issue is, if you control the Network DMZ, it's
| extremely difficult to bypass. In Xinjiang and Tibet (which
| has a similar setup) they used to use smuggled Kazakh,
| Nepali, and Indian SIM cards but that was cracked down.
|
| A lot of the info from inside Iran that is not regime
| connected is coming from areas in Iranian Kurdistan where
| an Iraqi SIM could be smuggled or accessed somewhat easier
| than other areas.
| gambutin wrote:
| That's interesting. Could they somehow do peer-to-peer
| anonymously until the packages reach the border?
| alephnerd wrote:
| P2P is only as safe as it's nodes. Iran has around 1
| million IRGC, Army, and Foreign Shia Militia deployed in
| a country of around 90 million.
|
| Mind you that organization has been severely degraded,
| but that only scares civilians even more as functionaries
| are much more trigger happy (rape [0], summary execution
| [1], torture [2] are already the norm).
|
| That makes covert P2P much harder.
|
| [0] -
| https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/12/iran-
| security...
|
| [1] -
| https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/01/iran-
| authorit...
|
| [2] -
| https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/0673/2026/en/
| newsclues wrote:
| How does internet shutdown affect bitcoin mining in Iran?
| alephnerd wrote:
| Iran has been under export controls for dual use technology
| for decades. Getting the amount of GPUs needed to conduct
| bitcoin mining was nigh impossible.
|
| Bitcoin and Crypto as a shadow financial system was enabled
| by Qatar and the UAE where there are dedicated deal desks
| that work on ExAmerica trades.
|
| This is why the IRGC striking Qatar and the UAE was such a
| bad move. Even companies in the PRC try to follow American
| sanctions regimes because trade with Japan+SK+ASEAN is
| higher priority than trade with Russia or Iran.
| JohnnyLarue wrote:
| Bombing civilian infrastructure didn't turn the Internet back on?
| I don't believe that.
| gambutin wrote:
| Noteworthy: It's not that no one in Iran has no access. Actually
| some have internet access via "white SIM cards" (1). Reportedly
| 50,000 or so.
|
| Essentially, they've created a two-tier system controlling who
| can access the internet.
|
| (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_SIM_Card
| traceroute66 wrote:
| > Noteworthy: It's not that no one in Iran has no access.
| Actually some have internet access via "white SIM cards"
|
| Erm, dude, you did look at the graph on the Mastodon post
| linked to, right ?
|
| You see that bit where it falls off a cliff to 0% netblocks ?
|
| "white SIM card" or not, you're not getting internet if there's
| no BGP routes being announced.
|
| The only way around 0 BGP announcements would be satellite...
|
| I suspect your "white SIM card" was a pre-war status-quo ...
| dataflow wrote:
| > Erm, dude, you did look at the graph on the Mastodon post
| linked to, right ? You see that bit where it falls off a
| cliff to 0% netblocks ?
|
| Not sure if we're all looking at the same plot, but I see
| things hovering above zero, not exactly at zero.
| payamb wrote:
| That's not the reality. Pro regime "white simcard" people
| have been spreading their propaganda since start of the war
| on twitter, instagram and elsewhere.
| dmix wrote:
| Which is a big reason why Iran has been able to do so well
| in the information war. Lies in public to appear in control
| and totalitarianism for their own citizens to keep them in
| the dark.
| roenxi wrote:
| I'd hazard a guess that _the_ big reason Iran is doing
| well in the information war is because the US /Israel
| combo launched an apparently unprovoked sneak attack in
| the middle of negotiations without thinking about the
| catastrophic global economic consequences it could
| unleash or how the attack, if executed, would help in any
| way. Trump still hasn't even found a crazy lie that
| sounds like a sane reason.
|
| It is hard to spin that in a positive light. It looks a
| little unreasonable. Even without a propaganda effort by
| the Iranians there is a great scratching of heads in the
| west trying to figure out why we're embarking on this
| crazy crusade.
|
| Although I hear the IRGC's lego game is on point so that
| is interesting.
| payamb wrote:
| Respectfully, I don't agree with you. There's no question
| that the IRGC and Iranian regime wanted to build nuclear
| weapons. They were planning to do this by constructing so
| many missile sites and launchers that no one would bother
| trying to stop them. Yes, the world could have done
| nothing and just watched, but that would have only
| delayed the problem and made it worse later. Just imagine
| what a nuclear-armed Iranian regime would do, not just to
| their own people but to their neighbors and the rest of
| the world.
| roenxi wrote:
| Good? The US and Israel both have nukes. Iran probably
| should have them too, it needs the tools to defend itself
| and maintain its sovereignty despite the actions of these
| lunatics. It is clear that rains of conventional
| ballistic missiles and the threat of taking out the
| global economy isn't enough to make Israel consider
| negotiations.
|
| If we wanted to worry about nuclear proliferation,
| negotiation was the path to take. There was a JCPOA and
| it seems like Khamenei Sr turned out to be serious about
| Iran not developing nukes in his lifetime. They've been a
| year or two away for more than a decade as I recall.
| Senseless violence isn't going to do anything to
| encourage disarmament - that is another part of why the
| Iranians have such an easy battle ahead of them in terms
| of propaganda.
|
| If we're going to worry about Iran getting nukes,
| assassinating the anti-nuke guy and pummelling them as
| Trump is will not help the situation in the slightest.
| The only path where they survive as a state is the one
| where they build nuclear missiles.
| payamb wrote:
| I don't blame you, and you're entitled to your view.
| However, it's easy to sit in a comfort zone and support a
| totalitarian regime you never experienced living under.
|
| Have a read: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603102323
| https://www.iranintl.com/en/202602031576
| oa335 wrote:
| That sounds brutal, and I'm sure there were tons of
| abuses by security forces during the protests, but I am a
| bit skeptical of Iran International as a source:
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20260116190959/https://www.th
| egu...
| traceroute66 wrote:
| > propaganda since start of the war on twitter, instagram
| and elsewhere.
|
| That propaganda can also be spread by people who do not
| have "white simcards" simply by virtue of the fact they
| live outside Iran.
|
| This includes, for example, the various posts made by
| Iranian embassies around the world.
|
| Come on, this is a technical forum, I really shouldn't need
| to spell that out !
| payamb wrote:
| I was specifically referring to pro-regime supporters
| inside Iran who have free internet access thanks to
| "white SIM cards."
| 0x1ceb00da wrote:
| We're receiving war footage from iran. They aren't completely
| disconnected.
| traceroute66 wrote:
| > We're receiving war footage from iran. They aren't
| completely disconnected.
|
| As I said, satellite is a thing.
|
| I also don't doubt there may be some traditional land-based
| BGP access going on too, maybe using "borrowed" prefixes.
| But I do not think it is as much as people think it might
| be.
|
| I also doubt there are 50,000 "white SIM" active today... I
| suspect that Wikipedia "unofficial figure" reflects pre-
| war. Most have very likely been disconnected or blocked.
| BariumBlue wrote:
| Apparently there have been IRGC and basij curfew patrols shooting
| at buildings / windows of people who sing or shout anti regime
| songs and slogans. Apparently they are also (at least in some
| cases) dressing as women to avoid airstrikes. There has been very
| little photage and info coming out of Iran though.
|
| I still believe the Iranian government is more afraid of it's
| people than of the US and Israel - the US and Israel can bomb
| leadership and materiel, but without ground troops, regime
| capitulation is unlikely, unless the populace can themselves
| overthrow the govt (though that is hard to do when there is a
| major imbalance in who has guns).
| jncfhnb wrote:
| This is all likely true. Although I feel people undersell how
| they work together.
|
| Iranians broadly hate their government, yeah. But the thing
| that gets them rioting is economic failure. Which the strikes
| have exacerbated.
|
| Social media is swarmed by people saying it'll be like Iraq and
| Iranians will hate the US for its actions. I'm not convinced.
| My small anecdata of Iranian friends with contacts in Iran
| agrees with me.
|
| I think we could see regime change within a decade.
| cpncrunch wrote:
| Why wont a general strike work? Not enough support? People
| have never had freedom, so dont understand they have 100%
| ability to bring down govt if they wanted?
| payamb wrote:
| Due to years of corruption and mismanagement, leading to
| high inflation and high prices most people are below
| poverty line and living pay check to pay check and they
| won't be able to literally feed themselves
| asdff wrote:
| This is the thing that is so curious about the concept of
| the general strike/siezing the means of production.
|
| The workers already have seized the means of production.
| I mean truly. Owner does not have the keys. Some manager
| unlocks the building for the day. Workers show up to the
| farm. Everything gets done every day whether the owner is
| there or across the globe or some dubious llc entity. The
| only thing the owner functionally does, is to be an
| address on file to send their cut of the profits. Nothing
| more than a specially designated furnace to burn a subset
| of the monthly revenue, at least in terms of their actual
| interaction with their business and their businesses
| interaction with themselves.
|
| Socialism is as easy as people waking up, going to work
| as usual, and not mailing that check to the owner. And
| having the owner go to the police, who in turn tell them
| "Awe shucks." These are the only conditions for socialism
| in 2026. Same as they were in 1926. So tantalizingly
| possible if people were just on board with it and not
| beholden to capitalism. Propaganda is why there are a
| subset of workers who will continue to diligently burn
| revenue for the owner, and why police will ultimately
| make the choice to sacrifice their own lives for the
| petty profits of this ownership class versus consider
| their own position in this world.
| nostrademons wrote:
| Usually socialist revolutions fail because nobody can
| agree on who the _new_ leaders should be. Workers seize
| control of the means of production...and then what? Who
| determines what they should do with it? Who do they look
| to for guidance? If you elect /appoint/select someone,
| now they are the new capitalist. If you don't, the
| machinery sits idle while various factions fight amongst
| themselves.
|
| We saw this with Occupy Wall Street and the CHAZ in the
| U.S - these protests didn't fail because they were
| crushed, they failed because local police basically let
| them win and then once they won different factions had
| different ideas of what to do next. We also see it at the
| state level with the Soviet Union (where a strong
| dictatorship did eventually emerge - the communist
| revolution didn't mean everybody was equal, it just meant
| some people were more equal than others) and in Vietnam
| (which became intensely capitalist less than 15 years
| after the communists won.
|
| The function of the business owner, CEO, or other
| executive figure is simply to be a _symbol_ of which
| direction the organization needs to go. They don 't do
| any work themselves, and they are selected for their
| ability to look pretty and shout platitudes that other
| people follow. But that symbol is needed to actually _get
| the people moving in one direction_.
| asdff wrote:
| >Workers seize control of the means of production...and
| then what? Who determines what they should do with it?
| Who do they look to for guidance? If you
| elect/appoint/select someone, now they are the new
| capitalist. If you don't, the machinery sits idle while
| various factions fight amongst themselves.
|
| And then what is you do what you would have done at work
| yesterday, today. Same job description as you had
| previously. Your manager? Same as they were yesterday
| too. Everything exactly the same. Just some guy you never
| see is not getting their passive income. No machinery
| would sit idle for the same reason no machinery sat idle
| yesterday: people showed up to run it.
|
| This is sort of how it worked in Cuba. Factories were
| nationalized and people went from working for the man to
| working for the public. And then the man had no
| government that would listen to them either. They had to
| go to the US government, argue that this was some great
| taking if left unanswered would sure happen all over the
| US and the rest of the world, and a hasty invasion
| designed by the US for these business owners to feign any
| political responsibility was designed, executed, and
| pushed back on the beachhead by the Cubans. Today the
| nation of Cuba remains sanctioned because of these owners
| from decades ago and their descendants, who still
| represent a significant political influence in south
| florida congressional districts, still feel like they
| were robbed by the people they were exploiting.
| jncfhnb wrote:
| It would work at sufficient scale and sacrifice
| nixon_why69 wrote:
| If Israel and America can keep it in their pants and stop
| bombing civilians.. then yeah the government is very
| unpopular.
|
| If.
| inglor_cz wrote:
| Unpopularity won't overthrow a government that is willing
| to drown every protest in blood.
| nixon_why69 wrote:
| You think the French monarchy was overthrown because they
| didn't try hard enough?
|
| It's blood against blood, but it's quite rare for people
| to rise up while there's an external enemy. Russia 1917
| is the only example I can think of?
| epicureanideal wrote:
| And to steel man your position, when the Russian
| revolution happened the bolsheviks promised peace, an end
| to the war.
| inglor_cz wrote:
| "You think the French monarchy was overthrown because
| they didn't try hard enough?"
|
| Yes, actually I do. Are you aware how long the process of
| transformation was and how little actual violence did the
| royal troops mete out? Most of the blood during the
| French Revolution was shed among the revolutionaries
| themselves, later. Not by the old regime which barely
| resisted what was happening, being confused more than
| anything else.
|
| The French monarchy was remarkably limp-wristed in its
| reaction to the post-1789 developments, probably because,
| in the beginning, not even the revolutionaries themselves
| expected to actually dismantle the monarchy. There was no
| civil war similar to Cromwell's England, nor massacres in
| the streets similar to modern Iran. In the largest event
| of that early period which could be called "a battle"
| (Storming of the Bastille), a grand total of 114 royalist
| soldiers made their last stand. Which is tiny for a
| country the size of France.
|
| It took about a year for the situation to progress from
| the first session of the Estates General to the royal
| family attempted flight from Versailles, and 2,5 more
| years for the King to be executed. A classical case of
| the frog being boiled very slowly. The royal regime was
| indecisive and offered close to zero violent resistence.
|
| (If you want to learn about an actual abortive French
| revolution which _was_ suppressed with actual brutal
| violence by the royalists, look up Fronda of 1648-1653.)
|
| In contrast, current rulers of Iran have 0 doubts about
| what is going to happen to them - and within minutes - if
| they get caught by the street crowd that hates them.
| jltsiren wrote:
| Russia had two revolutions in 1917. In the first one,
| pretty much everyone who mattered was unhappy with the
| regime. After some clashes between protesters and
| internal security forces, the emperor abdicated. A
| provisional government formed by established politicians
| took control, but it had to share power with workers'
| councils. The country became fragmented.
|
| The provisional government was center-left, the army was
| mostly controlled by the right, and the workers' councils
| leaned towards revolutionary left. The right wanted to
| use the army to arrest Bolshevik leaders. The government
| declined, fearing a military coup. The right saw the
| government siding with the left and made an actual coup
| attempt. The government had to rely on the workers'
| councils to stop it. Which then emboldened the Bolsheviks
| to stage a revolution of their own a bit later.
|
| But because the right was definitely not on board this
| time, the second revolution was only partially
| successful. Instead of a controlled regime change, the
| Bolsheviks got a civil war that lasted five years and
| killed millions.
| throwawayheui57 wrote:
| > But the thing that gets them rioting is economic failure
|
| I believe Iranians want to be able to decide their own fate,
| with the dignity that all humans deserve. Without criminal
| domestic religious zealots and without foreign meddling and
| bombing.
|
| The previous protest was followed by the killing of Mahsa
| Amini, in morality police's custody because of improper
| hijab. It's not only economic hardships. But you're right
| that war has made the situation worse, obviously.
|
| https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/10/iran-at-
| least...
| maest wrote:
| > I'm not convinced. My small anecdata of Iranian friends
| with contacts in Iran agrees with me.
|
| I am having a very hard time believing anyone would be
| favourable to the country currently lobbing bombs at them
| from halfway around the globe. Regardless of how much they
| dislike their current regime.
|
| Maybe this fuels some "everyone loves America, the good guys"
| fantasy, but, as someone who's come from a country where the
| people did not like the regime, I am very skeptical foreign
| interference will be seen positively or even neutrally.
|
| Or maybe this is an attempt at making the war seem somehow
| just and led on humanitarian and democratic principles, as
| opposed to what it actually is.
| e-khadem wrote:
| Let's put it this way: Have you seen someone's brain on the
| sidewalk lately? No? Lost a loved one / a friend / a
| classmate? Perhaps when people see this (as I have) they
| find more favorable views of the aerial bombing campaign.
|
| For reference, it has been verfied [~] that the regime
| killed ~220 students just in the recent uprisings of this
| January. That's a whole school full of students, all
| under-18. And then you have to ask, why would a teenager be
| on the streets, given that they knew, everyone knew, that
| snipers and machine guns will be there? Just 5 days ago
| they hung an 18-year-old who was arrested this Jan. They
| also hung a 19-yo wrestling champion very recently. The
| collateral damage of these bombings, which must be
| denounced and is reprehensible, still has not reached these
| levels either in brutality and in number. [1]
|
| [~] (my internet connection is not good enough to find the
| sources, I'm using dnstt in a very unreliable network)
|
| [1] AFAIK, Around 180-190 students have died in the recent
| conflict. Some 160-170 was due to an erroneous airstrike by
| the US military on the first day of the war, and their
| school was within 30 meters of a military base (!).
| Furthermore, some of the other students who have died were
| the children of the assassinated regime officials.
| oa335 wrote:
| > No? Lost a loved one / a friend / a classmate? Perhaps
| when people see this (as I have)
|
| Sorry to hear that. Are you currently in Iran now? Or
| have contact with people in Iran?
| overfeed wrote:
| > Are you currently in Iran now?
|
| Tel Aviv perhaps? Wartime is the worst time to stage a
| revolutionary for anyone,specifically because its a
| induces a state of emergency, and any activities can be
| construed as aiding the enemy.
| e-khadem wrote:
| I do live in Iran.
| jncfhnb wrote:
| My anecdata is from just two families whom I am hearing
| from indirectly and have never met in person. The takeaways
| are:
|
| 1) they HATE their government more than anything in the
| world. They've seen the government killing its own people.
|
| 2) the consensus of civilians is that strikes by and large
| are hitting IRGC targets. They do not feel civilian targets
| are being targeted even though the nature of it has
| resulted in civilian deaths.
|
| 3) they don't feel inclined to give trump the slightest
| amount of trust or good will. They just want regime change
| by any means.
| cineticdaffodil wrote:
| But the vector under a theocratic government constantly
| points towards failure. So you have one known vector thats
| disaster and one unknown vector that just mightbbe disaster..
| if in doubt throw the dice ?
| breppp wrote:
| > But the thing that gets them rioting is economic failure.
| Which the strikes have exacerbated.
|
| Past riots were related to women rights or election fraud.
| The last one were related to the economic situation, but
| there is a large young population in Iran which aren't
| religious anymore, and living in an oppressive theocracy
| iso1631 wrote:
| They'll have company soon
|
| https://gtnm.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-theocratic-
| authorita...
| bjourne wrote:
| My small anecdata of Iranian friends contradict yours. They
| are against both the US-Israeli bombings _and_ the Islamic
| regime. How should be decide whose anecdata is the most
| trustworthy? Maybe we can use common sense instead and agree
| that people don 't want to be bombed to death regardless of
| other circumstances?
| BigTTYGothGF wrote:
| > Apparently they are also (at least in some cases) dressing as
| women to avoid airstrikes
|
| Didn't help anybody in Minab.
| beloch wrote:
| When a regime starts killing thousands of it's own people it's
| a sign of weakness, not strength. Iran's theocracy was
| teetering above the abyss before the U.S. started bombing them.
|
| Now, they're probably good to go for a couple more decades.
| Trump is precisely the kind of threat Iranians have been warned
| about since the revolution. When a regime spends almost half a
| century preparing for something and it finally _happens_ , it
| earns them considerable forgiveness. Also, nothing unites
| people quite like a foreign threat, especially one dumb enough
| to bomb schoolgirls in its opening salvo.
|
| By scuttling the JCPOA for no apparent reason and now invading
| Iran right when it appeared the regime was crumbling, Trump has
| single-handedly reinvigorated Iran's theocracy and given them
| the public support they need for the final push towards nuclear
| weapons. That's what's so sickening about this invasion. It has
| acted in diametric opposition to the the policy goals it was
| purportedly pursuing.
| mdni007 wrote:
| Can you provide a source for any of this that is not just
| American or Isreali propaganda? Because I know you can't
| nitwit005 wrote:
| This is just spreading rumors. You have to do better than
| "apparently".
| traceroute66 wrote:
| Looking at it from an alternative angle, the Iranians are not
| stupid.
|
| They know leaving the internet online would be beneficial for
| their adversaries, perhaps especially as Israel is one of them,
| and Israel's use of cyber is no secret.
|
| So by killing the internet, they have an instant air-gap
| firewall.
|
| Making the most of the levers they have fighting asymmetric
| warfare.
| jncfhnb wrote:
| It's very economically harmful to be disconnected. That's the
| downside
| traceroute66 wrote:
| > It's very economically harmful to be disconnected. That's
| the downside
|
| I mean, sure. But then being at war is also economically
| harmful. :)
| jncfhnb wrote:
| I guess. But the framing here is not "clever, innovative
| IRGC" so much as oppressive regime fucking over it's people
| to retain control.
| traceroute66 wrote:
| > But the framing here is not "clever, innovative IRGC"
|
| I am not seeking to frame anything here. Nor am I
| interested in getting involved in the broader areas on
| discussion on the subject.
|
| The first few words of my original post made it clear
| "Looking at it from an alternative angle". An alternative
| way of wording that would be "devil's advocate".
|
| I am just supplying a perfectly reasonable alternative
| perspective, I am not asking anyone to agree or disagree
| with it, I am just making a "food for thought" statement.
| jncfhnb wrote:
| I don't see any alternative angle though. Nobody thinks
| the IRGC is doing this for fun.
| overfeed wrote:
| > I don't see any alternative angle though
|
| I see it, and hadn't fully considered it. Turning off the
| Internet has more utility than just suppressing the
| populaces ability to communicate, it also blackholes that
| compromised mail server used to track the movement of
| political leaders, any online drop-
| boxes/Telegram/Whatsapp channels used by cultivated
| informants/spies are now out of order.
| jncfhnb wrote:
| Ehhh I suppose but I think that's a weak point. The
| purpose of shutting down the internet is undeniably to
| prevent the people from coordinating rebellion and the
| help control the narrative of the war.
| ElectricalUnion wrote:
| From my point of view, they can't even "just turn on the
| Internet", even if they wanted.
|
| We know from the Ukraine side that "keeping the internet
| on" requires a whole bunch of personal sacrifice, and a
| lot of "reasonably recent" electronic equipment and
| infrastructure that Iran can't simply buy or repair right
| now.
| overfeed wrote:
| I'll bet you - dollars to donuts - that Iran has many
| countrywide IP-based networks running at this second, for
| things such as broadcast and telecoms.
|
| Perhaps you are underestimating the resources available
| to a country of 90 million. You could play a game where
| you estimate the number of routers and switches outside
| of Tehran under a hypothetical where the the capital was
| leveled. I don't know how many universities Iran has, but
| my working assumption is that any one Computer Science
| department from a D-Tier university is equal to the task,
| if the physical carrier medium for the Internet is still
| present and they are bringing their ancient half-rack of
| equipment.
| dmix wrote:
| This isn't just a wealthy country like the US doing war
| rations. Iran's economy was already in crisis before the
| war, where businesses stopped selling products because
| their currency was fluctuating so much they couldn't set
| prices without losing money. It means tons of small
| businesses shutting down and people going hungry. Which
| puts even more pressure on Iran's social services which are
| were already in a terrible state. Now the US blockade means
| significantly less tax money coming into the government.
|
| Their country is very much on the edge of chaos which is
| why they are brutally controlling their citizens.
| amelius wrote:
| > But then being at war is also economically harmful.
|
| Especially being at war with practically all the countries
| around you.
| roumenguha wrote:
| Unless you have the backing of a much larger economic
| power with virtually guaranteed funding and equipment.
| amelius wrote:
| But that power has its own problems these days and can't
| be relied upon really.
| payamb wrote:
| It's proven time and time again that Mossad always find a way
| to infiltrate into even most secure Iranian network. This is
| mostly done to control the narrative and keep the pro regime
| supporters morale up.
| traceroute66 wrote:
| > It's proven time and time again that Mossad always find a
| way to infiltrate into even most secure Iranian network.
|
| Sure, but why make their life easier ?
|
| Taking your line of argument, you would also need to say _"
| well, the US are going to bomb us anyway. We might as well
| just post all the GPS coordinates of sensitive sites up on
| Twitter"_.
| ifwinterco wrote:
| Yep, there is no country in the world where the elites wouldn't
| do similar things in this situation (an existential war).
|
| It doesn't matter what your constitution says, western
| countries have readily adopted brutal censorship during serious
| wars virtually every time.
|
| Failing to do so simply allows hostile foreign powers free
| reign in the information space domestically and increases the
| chance you lose
| pcf wrote:
| Every Iranian I know support the current US/Israeli war against
| the Islamic Republic.
|
| They say things like "no matter what it takes, no matter how many
| of us die, we must be free again, this time we will win against
| the terrorist regime" (paraphrased).
| sillyfluke wrote:
| It's always good to state if the Iranians you know are
| currently residing in Iran, for clarity.
|
| Your paraphased quote also implies that there must be actual
| regime change for the deaths to be worth it (ie, no IRGC).
| orangeboats wrote:
| It's scary that your 1-minute old comment got insta-
| downvoted.
| 0x1ceb00da wrote:
| It isn't scary it's obvious. Majority of people on HN are
| american. Obviously the government would want to control
| the narrative here.
| gambutin wrote:
| If only they had internet so that we could ask them!
| vjvjvjvjghv wrote:
| The big question is what comes after. I don't think many
| disagreed with Saddam or Gaddafi but history shows that this
| doesn't necessarily lead to good outcomes.
| rjbwork wrote:
| It's very easy to offer the lives of others for your goals.
| bilbo0s wrote:
| In fairness, the _claim_ is that all the Iranians are
| offering their own lives for the poster 's goals.
|
| Of course, that only brings us to, "It's easy to claim others
| are offering their lives for your goals."
|
| I guess it's probably best to just realize everything you see
| on the subject of any given war is probably propaganda. And
| judge the value of it through that lens.
| blitzar wrote:
| "Some of you May Die, But it's a Sacrifice I am Willing to
| Make"
| hgoel wrote:
| Are these Iranian friends and their children the ones at risk
| the next time the US or Israel "accidentally" double taps
| civilian infrastructure?
|
| The regime will kill you/your loved ones and brand them as
| criminals if you protest against them or break an unreasonable
| law, the US and Israel will kill you and brand you as
| terrorists because you happened to be Iranian and in the wrong
| place.
| breppp wrote:
| If you look at the chances, there's a far greater chance of
| dying in the hands of SUV mounted machine guns firing at
| crowds than precision bombs that mostly hit regime forces
| epicureanideal wrote:
| Source for the latter occurrence?
| E-Reverance wrote:
| https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mgndkklvmo
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| My family in Tehran fear the bombs but support the US
| continuing to do so. I think the bombing campaign needs to
| end, so I disagree with them on that. Based on what little we
| know coming out of Tehran (we only get a few min of landline
| phone calls from Tehran once a week), the issue is splitting
| families due to the mental strain it's having. That being
| said, the overall feeling is very much still pro-US.
|
| I think people outside of Iran/Iranians vastly underestimate
| the disdain for the Iranian regime. Go watch the movie "It
| was just an accident" to get a basic feel for how much they
| hate the regime, then amplify that tenfold.
| hgoel wrote:
| I was living in Tehran during the 2011-2012 protests,
| British embassy incident etc (I was ~13 then).
|
| I once attended a military "fair"(?) where they'd show off
| their equipment and had some anti-US "games", eg one
| involving throwing a shoe at a target with Obama or maybe
| Bush's face printed on it, and observed people
| enthusiastically taking part in it.
|
| My impression was that while people hated and feared the
| regime, they still broadly shared the anti-foreign
| intervention stance, particularly against the US. I'm
| having a hard time believing that they'd still be pro-US
| after Trump threatened genocide against them.
| mazamats wrote:
| If you weren't born in that part of the world I would
| doubt your impressions especially at age 13
|
| Your viewpoint is comes from a different place than that
| of natives or diaspora
| hgoel wrote:
| That's a fair point
| roenxi wrote:
| > Every Iranian I know support the current US/Israeli war
| against the Islamic Republic.
|
| That seems a little bit suspect, how many Iranians do you know?
| I have difficulty believing that less than around 20-30% of
| them support the regime. There seems to be a baseline of around
| that fraction of people who support the status quo.
|
| It isn't so hard to find people who support full-on communism.
| Any reasonable sample should be turning up a lot of really
| weird opinions.
| oa335 wrote:
| That's interesting; how many of them are currently in Iran or
| have close family in Iran?
| throwawayheui57 wrote:
| Iranian here! I want to see the regime answer for its crimes.
| They act like an occupying force, taking the country hostage.
|
| With that being said I don't like/want the war. I understand
| and sympathize with the emotional response from my compatriots
| because they see the oppressors are getting the bloody beating
| they well deserve. But I don't really think that the current
| war brings anything good for the people. I wish it did but it
| doesn't look like it. I wish the regime would fall but they
| haven't and we now have ~2000 more innocents dead on top of
| thousands that government killed in January.
| YZF wrote:
| I am guessing you're not a supported of Reza Pahlavi?
|
| How in your mind do we get to the regime answering for its
| crimes? What is going to dislodge them? If they are not
| dislodged and continue to indoctrinate more people where does
| this go? If they have more weapons where does it go?
|
| Is any chance that some elements within the current regime
| will change sides? What percent of soldiers or militia are
| die hard fanatics vs. people who will jump ship if there's a
| good chance of that "ship" sinking?
| 4gotunameagain wrote:
| Did you see on the news how many people were mourning for
| Khomeini on the streets ?
|
| Clearly your sample of Iranians is very biased.
|
| I am not pro theocratic regimes, but not only does the
| US/Israel _not_ have the right to wage this war, but this war
| will only make the regime stronger.
|
| Nothing more unifying than getting bombed, especially in
| martyrdom cultures.
| RobotToaster wrote:
| It's easy to say that when you're a shah supporter living in
| the west.
| pphysch wrote:
| Do you ever think what would happen to them in the West if they
| _weren 't_ vocal opponents of the Iranian state?
| aaronbrethorst wrote:
| 42 days, for anyone else not accustomed to thinking in terms of
| large numbers of hours.
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| This is the sort of thing the Arsenal of Democracy should be
| building against. We should be deploying tools to give people
| voices in hostile places, to get messages out, to collaborate.
| overfeed wrote:
| See age verification, anti-pornography, and anti-VPN laws
| popping up like weeds all over democratic countries.
| Governments everywhere are pushing for more control over who
| and how people communicate over the Internet, so they can mute
| certain voices without shutting down the internet like Iran
| when they deem it necessary
| UltraSane wrote:
| It isn't an outage it is an intentional block. Iranian ISPs
| actually stop announcing all IPv4 prefixes into BGP.
| amir734jj wrote:
| I'm an Iranian American. There is no Internet. Only people who
| work for the government have limited Internet. We can't call
| phone numbers in Iran. They can call our phone in the US (they
| will get a sms or call shortly after ending the call saying that
| we the government was monitoring the conversation) and these
| calls are very expensive for them. This situation is not
| sustainable. There are many businesses in Iran that rely on
| Internet. Millions of Iranian live outside of the country and
| haven't been able to talk to their family and friends. Not sure
| how long will this internet blockade will continue.
| yonatan8070 wrote:
| The Iranian regieme shot (and I can only assume continues to
| shoot) citizens at a large scale, so I doubt small businesses
| collapsing or people being unable to talk to family and friends
| is what's going to make them re-enable the internet, which will
| also make it was easier for citizens to organize and overthrow
| the regieme.
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