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Iran Cuts Internet Access and Threatens Telegram Following Mass Protests (bbc.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader cold fjord writes: As seething discontent has boiled over in Iran leading to mass protests, protesters have taken to the streets and social media to register their discontent... The government has been closing schools and shutting down transportation.
Now, as mass protests in Iran go into their third day there are reports that internet access is being cut in cities with protests occurring. Social media has been a tool for documenting the protests and brutal crackdowns against them. Iran previously cut off internet access during the Green Movement protests following the 2009 elections. At the same time the Iranian government is cutting internet access they have called on Telegram, reportedly used by more than 40 million Iranians, to close the channels used by protesters. Telegram is now closing channels used by the protesters while Telegram itself may be shut down in Iran.
Now, as mass protests in Iran go into their third day there are reports that internet access is being cut in cities with protests occurring. Social media has been a tool for documenting the protests and brutal crackdowns against them. Iran previously cut off internet access during the Green Movement protests following the 2009 elections. At the same time the Iranian government is cutting internet access they have called on Telegram, reportedly used by more than 40 million Iranians, to close the channels used by protesters. Telegram is now closing channels used by the protesters while Telegram itself may be shut down in Iran.
Thank FCC, you caused this!!
... Brexit and learn, America!
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Threatens telegram? Something like this:
Stop rioting stop if you don't there'll be bother stop
END OF MESSAGE 53 LETTERS 17 CENTS
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Trump has tweeted in support of the demonstrators. Everyone else is quiet as a bitch.
Oooohhhh that Trump! I can't eat, I can't sleep! All I think about is Trump and I get so angry I just go outside and scream and scream!!!
It actually happens
Nothing like virtue signalling by screaming at a robot.
He's just like a monkey that's proud he jerked off in public and then threw a turd.
Iran was once a democracy until they elected the "wrong" leader and America and Britain fixed it by putting in the Shah. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
As long as the rank and file soldiers and police don't feel that the internal turmoil in Iran won't be exploited by outside forces they likely will tolerate peaceful protests. There is a good chance the Iranian leadership won't order any kind of crack down for fear the police won't obey them. If the rest of the worlds leaders can resist opening their mouths there is a good chance Iran can be another success story like Tunisia.
I just saw this video on what's going on in Iran:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbXWFKttVs8
One thing I took away was this, it takes just one generation for freedom to die. If a totalitarian government can stay in power long enough for everyone that remembers what freedom looks and feels like then freedom can die. At that point people people don't know any better and expect nothing else. That's what North Korea has become. In North Korea they've had the Kim family in charge long enough that anyone that remembers the time before is dead, or at least weak and senile enough to be safely ignored.
The people in Iran had freedom roughly 40 years ago. If freedom is not restored soon then the people that remember what freedom felt like will be gone and Iran will continue in this darkness they've created for a very long time. This is Iran's last chance. If this current public outcry does not restore a democracy then expect Iran to become a nation like North Korea, shut off from the rest of the world and left to live in their own shit.
It's not like things are going well in North Korea right now. They just had an officer run the border with his own troops shooting at him. When he was recovered from the DMZ by South Korean forces he was found with evidence of severe starvation, in a nation where the military eats first. That's what Iran can look forward to if this revolt is put down, they can expect 50 years of starvation and misery.
I expect that if Iran falls then we can expect North Korea to fall not long after.
You're right!
Ban buildings right now!
#DeleteFacebook
Log in so we can ban you. You're opinion is rejected within here and with anyone like you should stay off Slashdot.
-msmash (Top Editor)
especially the ones getting nukes
Mesh networks implemented properly are much harder to shut down.
Makes it rather easy for governments (or anyone) to shut down a group. Log in and start saying a lot of violent garbage. Channel banned. Problem solved.
This news must come as a shock to CNN viewers because they've been running 24-7 coverage of that damn white truck that blocks CNN's view of Trump playing golf. Oh wait, this won't shock CNN viewers because CNN still isn't covering it at all.
Hi mom, How are you doing? I know you'll never talk to me again because I said the election was a farce and wanted no part of it, but I love you anyway. I hope you are doing better.
If that were true... wouldn't the MSM be pushing it a bit more? Instead we have CNN on what? Day 2 or 3 of talking about a white truck.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
While the corrupted Iranian regime cutting access to the Net for fear that the protest will spread, the Western MSM is cooperating with the Iranian regime by doing everything they can to SUPPRESS THE NEWS !
Do we need 'mass media' when it is part of a censorship cartel?
...and terrorists, as used in Ukraine, Libya, and Syria. Prominent politicians including Howard Dean have lobbied for MEK, which was on the State Department's list of terror groups until people started asking why people like Dean weren't being prosecuted, when the government sent someone to prison for carrying a Hezbollah TV channel. Iran has been on the "regime change" list since they kicked out the Shah. Obama spent years threatening to attack Iran for a nuclear weapons program he knew they didn't have, and Trump hasn't been any better.
So, take these protests with a BIG grain of salt.
How they took power.
I don't care who you are* that's funny.
*I really don't care who you are.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
An even stronger reaction than in the U.S.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I don't think we'll have WWIII.
There's too much shareholder money at stake.
A runup to be sure because profits.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Obama spent years threatening to attack Iran for a nuclear weapons program he knew they didn't have
But instead dropped off a plane-load of gold and cash. To find a nuclear weapons program very much alive and well, thank you very much - or did you really imagine North Korea has developed all this nuclear weapon tech on it's own, currently targeted to sit inside the Iranian built missiles they have been flying? How blind do you have to be to miss that link?
Obama spent years threatening to attack Iran for a nuclear weapons program he knew they didn't have
He hasn't sent any new planeloads of gold and cash so he's already ahead by a wide margin. And Trump explicitly supported the protestors, which Obama never did and never will do.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You are a moron !
Nor in the US.
Americans have the right to bear arms, but not the right to use them. © 2017 CaptainDork
Look at the video footage of riots there. Protesters are using stone-age weapons. They aren't using #2A.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Now if only us Americans can not stick our heads in like we did in the 50s (deposing their democratically elected leader not less) then maybe, just maybe they'll have a chance to modernize and secularize.
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...but I know they're behind it.
Whoah. WTF? I hate the trumptards as much as the next person, but you're just throwing fuel on the fire here. Login so we can ban you?
However, props for actually being honest and not just using socks to censor users. You guys need to be more honest about the censorship, and I guess this is a step toward that.
English, motherfucker, do you speak it?
The bad news: WW III will suck hard for most of us
It sure would! That's why ahead of Hillary "Destroyer of Libya" Clinton possibly being president, I had refreshed my iodine tablet supply and was ready to watch the world literally end in fire. But now I feel like, that's not nearly as possible as it once was now that the U.S. has stopped supplying and funding the origin of that fire...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The AIPAC in USA is behind this.
Oh shut the fuck up. The idea that everything revolves around the US is stupidfuckingbullshit.
Rouhani (the moderate president) published how many tax rials go to unaccountable religious programs (e.g. directly into the pockets of the mullahs). This is the first time those budget carve-outs have been made public. Rouhani did it to provoke a reaction against the mullahs. It seems to be working. For now. He may have underestimated the strength of backlash and could be washed out on the same tide as them.
The sad thing is that if these protestors succeed, chances are the power vacuum will be filled be even worse assholes. That's what happened with most of the arab spring. And that's because tearing shit down is easy. Building up new institutions from the wreckage is really fucking hard and lots of powerful people would be happy to see Iran permanently hobbled. Not the least of which is Abu Ivanka al-Amreeki, incompetent as he is, incompetent malevolence second only to competent malevolence.
Also, we should remember Neda Agha-Soltan and pray that no one else suffers her fate.
For those that want the sound effect.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
It would be a mistake to believe that anything is under firm control. At the very least accident happen. A missile launched in error could precipitate a very ugly chain reaction. A runup of hostilities makes that kind of mistake more likely because such an escalation means there is less slack, everybody is on a hair-trigger.
Seconded.
It's the weekend and they can't play Call of Duty. Sucks, man.
Yeah, because it's happened so often and stuff.
Oh, wait. That was the doomsdayers. Day be trippin', yeah.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Nothing like virtue signalling by screaming at a robot.
Or... he protested in the way most available to him and it was so successful that not only was his protest all over twitter, it got picked up by the tv news networks. I didn't see mention of it anywhere on liberal twitter, but damn! the 'conservative' twitter personalities I follow to keep a finger on the pulse of the kakistrocacy all felt the need to retweet the video. Seems like it worked. Hell, it wasn't some libtard who posted it to slashdot, *you* posted it.
The MSM that are allowed into Iran don't want to lose access to the Iranian market share. Saying mean things about the Iranian government earns you quick trip to the nearest airport if you are lucky. Iran has no freedom of speech or protections.
Sort of like Apple touting their security features in the US while giving China their IP and anything else the Chinese government ask of them.
Apple wants access to the Chinese market and will do anything to ensure market access.
Your coherence is pretty low. But I think you are making a smugly ignorant rebuttal. Not unlike the alcoholic who says driving drunk is perfectly safe because he's never crashed his car, yet.
To which I reply that there are more than a couple (public) stories of Armageddon avoided by the slimmest of margins. And that was when highly competent and informed people were running things, not idiot hot-heads like today.
For example:
Soviet officer who averted cold war nuclear disaster
Stanislav Petrov was on duty in a secret command centre outside Moscow on 26 September 1983 when a radar screen showed that five Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles had been launched by the US towards the Soviet Union.
Red Army protocol would have been to order a retaliatory strike, but Petrov – then a 44-year-old lieutenant colonel – ignored the warning, relying on a “gut instinct” that told him it was a false alert.
World War Three, by Mistake
President Jimmy Carter’s national-security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was asleep in Washington, D.C., when the phone rang. His military aide, General William Odom, was calling to inform him that two hundred and twenty missiles launched from Soviet submarines were heading toward the United States. Brzezinski told Odom to get confirmation of the attack. A retaliatory strike would have to be ordered quickly; Washington might be destroyed within minutes. Odom called back and offered a correction: twenty-two hundred Soviet missiles had been launched.
Brzezinski decided not to wake up his wife, preferring that she die in her sleep. As he prepared to call Carter and recommend an American counterattack, the phone rang for a third time. Odom apologized—it was a false alarm. An investigation later found that a defective computer chip in a communications device at NORAD headquarters had generated the erroneous warning. The chip cost forty-six cents.
A similar false alarm had occurred the previous year, when someone mistakenly inserted a training tape, featuring a highly realistic simulation of an all-out Soviet attack, into one of NORAD’s computers. During the Cold War, false alarms were also triggered by the moon rising over Norway, the launch of a weather rocket from Norway, a solar storm, sunlight reflecting off high-altitude clouds, and a faulty A.T. & T. telephone switch in Black Forest, Colorado.
Maybe if America and its allies (mostly the UK) hadn't gotten involved in Iranian politics in the first place by ousting Mohammad Mosaddegh then we wouldn't have the current mess in the country.
Yah, so, whats your point?
Mosaddegh was removed in a coup. Not mass protests across cities and towns so small nobody outside of Iran has even heard of them.
These are the protests of the Iranian people, by the Iranian people, and for the Iranian people. Foreign intervention could probably help the regime crush them, but no foreign intervention could motivate this many people to risk their lives. Especially not intervention from a country that has officially declared that they will refuse anyone seeking asylum if the protests are crushed.
The real question you should be asking is, why did it take the US media(and most of the western media) so long to do any stories on this in the first place. My guess? There's another journolist type organization deciding what "type" of media to present again. This stuff was all over Japanese media well latish 3ish days ago now, it was in the A section of the Mainichi Times print publication, right next to the article on Japan looking at full revoking article 9, or partially rewriting article 9 of their constitution to allow proactive military defense with the increasing of China in the Sea of Japan and N.Korea. It however isn't in the english online daily or the JP online daily, though the article 9 story is, but it was published early(10am) on the 30th.
Om, nomnomnom...
Cutting my internet would get me out on the streets too.
Well, with the internet shut off, they had to send the angry missive SOMEHOW! ;P
Fox and Brietbart and some of their ilk reported it the first day.
On the other hand, a certain political faction in the US has been supporting the Iranian government since the last protests in 2009. If the biggest media networks start reporting on how that government is unpopular and is slaughtering protesters, it will make that political faction look bad. Since most members of the big media networks are members of that political faction, they have an inherent interest in not doing that.
Also, it's the weekend between Chirstmas and New Years. Most of their staff in on vacation: look how the New York Times had their 'expert' reporting on these protests from a bar in Tokyo, Japan!
Swedish state supports the regime and hates trump
So Telegram has begun shutting chats at the behest of government bodies.
Well. That didn't take long.
So much for Telegram being the hard-ass impossible to influence "we never take bribes or listen to threats" messenger.
Fork, anyone?
No, you cretin. That was a retarded analogy. Alcoholics demonstrably crash their cars all the time. Countries demonstrably don't have nuclear wars all the time.
This wanker threatens to ban people for saying shit on the internet? awesome place we got here.
From what I gather Iran was never much into religion until US backed regime of Mohammad Pahlavi killed off all secular politicians, because "secular" + "non aligned with US" means "communist" to US overlords. And religious people are easier to control.
Oh look! One of the "slow" boys has found an unguarded computer!
Also, it's the weekend between Chirstmas and New Years.
Even the stock market doesn't stop between those days.
You realize that's a troll account, right?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
As for what has been transpiring in Iran, that's not their priority
'specially after O "invested" $150 billion in the Mullah's regime, something a normal Iranian govt might give us for free.
The real question you should be asking is, why did it take the US media(and most of the western media) so long to do any stories on this in the first place.
I'd definitely suggest asking themselves why they're following those news-outlets, if they are not covering various stories.
(Also, I've been following "western media", it's in there)
Alcoholics demonstrably crash their cars all the time. Countries demonstrably don't have nuclear wars all the time.
Innumeracy for the fail.
Number of alcoholics that own cars: millions
Number of countries that own nukes: 9
People like the mullahs found the Telegram app to be an ideal tool for the terrorists they promote to exchange encrypted messages. Apparently now it has come back to bite them.
Correction it's in there now. Two days later, in a country that lives and breathes news and money, and the stock market doesn't goto sleep between boxing day and the 31's unless it's a weekend.
Om, nomnomnom...
I'd make a distinction between "western media" and "US media".
I live in Brussels (Capitol of EU), and heard about the protests earlier.
On the one hand the mainstream will catch on quick enough: They know a news bandwagon when they see it and since Trump has joined the Iran hawks and they're going all out again to stir up conflict, so expect a lot of news from evil Iran and demonic Hezbollah. But on the other hand there is a lot of powerful opposition who think war with Iran is a bad idea and that often means the media will be conflicted as well.
Fun detail. Iranians are the main enemies of "ragheads", aka arabs. They're persians.
Not that you'd know.
Just how little control "shareholders" have when grand scale geopolitics are at stake was demonstrated very well in Germany in 2014, when it was dragged kicking and screaming into sanctions against Russia that hurt shareholders severely.
When things are about grand geopolitical designs, shareholders are told to suck it up and shut the fuck up.
TL;DR
Volume does not add value.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
So you're optimistic about the actual length of WW III.
Shareholders aren't.
But dancing on the rim is very possible.
For Reference, see Afghanistan.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Religion screws everything up.
They all know they are liars (religious people), trying to keep power over people who cannot think for themselves. At least that's the way that Christians and Muslims are. There are a few exceptions, of course, but they are just that, exceptions, IME.
Proper Buddhists don't push their religion onto others. That is against their religion.
What could possibly go wrong?
I'd make a distinction between "western media" and "US media".
I live in Brussels (Capitol of EU), and heard about the protests earlier.
I wouldn't. Nearly all of the big "byline" companies are based out of the US, even AFP has it's primary newsroom in the US.
Om, nomnomnom...
For a better reference, see length of Japan staying in the war after nuclear bombs were dropped.
P.S. Yes, I can argue the case that bombs were just the official reason, and actual reason was USSR breaking neutrality and making successful landings from the West too. Does not adjust the analogy to analogy point.
Another Corpwhore sells out people in crisis. Mark your future Americans. This is it.
Many of those secular politicians were in fact actual Communists.
The Germans will follow the US lead when dealing with Russia or find themselves looking for another protector to hide behind. At the very least they could find their US export markets shrink. There is always a price attached to relations between countries. The US has spent trillions of dollars over the past 70 years protecting the NATO affiliated countries and it's treaty partners in Asia and elsewhere around the world. In return the US has had to put up with countries second guessing and complaining about every action the US takes. The Europeans think terrorism is bad and also believe the world would be a safer place without NK building nukes for export to anyone with enough money. But in both instances they are unwilling to do anything to address these problems. They have no solutions and provide token support to keep up appearances. The Europeans think the Israelis should surrender to their enemies and aid in the dismantling of their own country while pushing diplomatic initiatives that have not worked for +60 years. WW3 has already started and will continue to grow as populations rise, climate damages rise, and the availability of critical natural resources decline. Those who remember and experienced the true horrors of WW2 are almost all gone leaving us with people who will not compromise or tone down the animosity and pure hatred being witnessed today.
They'll get around to it, what's the hurry? We still have 310 shopping days until the election
And yes, even though the moderators appear to disagree, this story is another propaganda piece calling for yet another Regime Change® in the middle east.
orchestrated by the UK
The UK is the "brains" behind all of middle east policy, the US is the muscle (Pinky). They and Europe are much more dependent on their resources than we are. We really don't have a dog in this race other than our incestuous relations with Britain and France, and the usual Wall Street players. But the Queen called, and so we answer...
And see how the basic truth is treated here? You (we) will not disrupt the chosen narrative. The moderators will see to that!
Japan was not an economic powerhouse back then and "globalization" was not a thing.
Also, America is the only country to ever use thermonuclear weapons.
Because there was no comparable retaliation, analogies fail.
Today's border-less corporations will sell and transport weapons to any and all sides, but they will not allow annihilation of the customer base.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
"Social media has been a tool for documenting the protests and brutal crackdowns against them."
No social networks have been a tool. Media is content while the tool is the network for communication that content on.
Please stop referring everything as social media when you mean social networks or just say "online".
What are you doing? Is your ego so small that you can't just shut up when you've been owned by someone who knows WTF they are talking about? You aren't winning any points. You are just telling everyone how insecure you are.
You aren't winning any points.
Is /. a game, and I'm looking to level up?
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Japan was a massive economic and military powerhouse before the WW2. Globaliation started being a thing in 1800s. You should stop spewing opinionated falsehoods.
P.S. You really should read history, especially on your last claim. Weapons export to customers in other countries and wars not being controllable by said exporters was a thing for literally millenia. I could cite examples going all the way back to fall of Constantinople and beyond.
Whatever you gotta tell yourself to avoid looking in the mirror.
Too late with that thought. German relationship with US is already in the gutter due to political machinations of the elite that thought Clinton was a sure bet in last presidential elections.
Current administration views Germany as an openly hostile state in terms of economic cooperation. To US, economic cooperation traditionally is purview of national security first, and economy second. Reason for this is obvious when you look at portion of the total GDP that comes from domestic vs foreign trade and then compare to other countries. US built the current trade order, but it never invested itself in it to an extent even remotely similar that its allies did.
As for the rest of your broad and rather ignorant generalisations, I'll let you have them. If you even remotely think that US/European allies didn't for example play the Israel situation as "good cop/bad cop" scenario to avoid Second World getting the "primary sponsor of other side" spot, I have land on the moon to sell you.
Until we intervened. There are pictures of Iranian girls in short skirts from the 50s. Hell, the war in the middle east was basically caused by the west dividing up the country the way we saw fit ignoring Geo-political boundaries...
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