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The App Destroying Iran's Currency (foreignpolicy.com)
Iranians are using the messaging app Telegram to spread fake news about the rial -- and make a profit for themselves. From a report: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani owes his re-election in large part to the messaging app Telegram. During Iran's 2017 presidential election, Iranians relied on the app as a rare source of uncensored news about the race, in which Rouhani was not the candidate most favored by hard-liners. Just one year later, Telegram may end up becoming Rouhani's downfall. The app is at the center of Iran's accelerating currency crash.
The Iranian rial was generally acknowledged to have been on a stable path until May, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited the Iran nuclear deal. Prior to the U.S. withdrawal, one U.S. dollar was worth around 37,000 rials; immediately afterwards, a single dollar jumped to around 44,000 rials. The rial has continued to slump ever since, dropping to 50,000 to the dollar, and then 80,000 rials, and then 190,000 during Rouhani's speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September. Right now, it is at 120,500 rials. But it isn't just U.S. sanctions and the fundamental weaknesses of the Iranian economy that have contributed to Iran's currency freefall. It's also the deliberate circulation of rumors and fake news on Telegram by Iranian currency traders and middlemen out to make a profit.
The Iranian rial was generally acknowledged to have been on a stable path until May, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited the Iran nuclear deal. Prior to the U.S. withdrawal, one U.S. dollar was worth around 37,000 rials; immediately afterwards, a single dollar jumped to around 44,000 rials. The rial has continued to slump ever since, dropping to 50,000 to the dollar, and then 80,000 rials, and then 190,000 during Rouhani's speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September. Right now, it is at 120,500 rials. But it isn't just U.S. sanctions and the fundamental weaknesses of the Iranian economy that have contributed to Iran's currency freefall. It's also the deliberate circulation of rumors and fake news on Telegram by Iranian currency traders and middlemen out to make a profit.
âoeThis is an outrage! I was going to destroy that currency!â
Did he mean to say fake as in not rial?
You can't take it back now. Unless you ban it like China. Fuck them though. Fuck Xi jinping
Switch now and get in early and reap the riches later.
Intersting that slashdot has taken up shitposting to skip the middle-man. The story has one link, which leads back to this slashdot page.
On the story I think the US sanctions might have somewhat more to do with the currency value than a few people on Telegram.
Geez, maybe those fundamentalist Muslims can suppress women harder?
That's a whole lot of bloviating to say crooks are lying to make a profit and are causing the currency to devalue.
It's got nothing to do with the president, or the sanctions, or the nuclear deal, or the Telegram app...
It has to do with scammers scamming people. The end.
The reasons a currency gets destroyed are not because citizens communicating with each other.
"But it isn't just U.S. sanctions and the fundamental weaknesses of the Iranian economy..."
What's this "fundamental weakness", aren't the US sanctions the problem ?
Iran should switch to Bitcoin!
Then, once the next cryptocurrency hack cleans out the Iranian treasury, the entire country will be flat on its back. No more nuclear weapons program!
Stuxnet couldn't hold a candle to the damage that BTC would do to Iran. :-)
This tells me several times the same thing, veers off into other stuff, comes back to tell me the same thing again... and leaves me with a clear impression of having wasted my time.
I might as well read bbc news instead, which does the same idiot thing only has some veneer of respectability. Fuck you, msmash.
I think that maybe the ability for anyone to be a "news source" with the internet has made it so news is much more easily manipulated than it used to be. It is funny how when a friend told you the sky was falling you'd laugh and think they were unbalanced. Now you read it on a sketchy news site after a google search and the same person who was unbalanced posted "the sky is falling" on FB and it becomes "truth", because well it was in print after all. I am not sure how to change the mindset that you should trust sources that check facts. Maybe we are hardwired to believe what we read but are skeptical of what we hear. Maybe it is google's fault to some extent as their search algorithm is ignorant of source verification. But how would they filter now? If they did, the unbalanced would scream foul.
lets send our boys into the meat grinder!
We will see how fake news is spread once the head is cut off. Use a dull sword. Or a Saudi bone saw. Hack. It. Off!
An app isn't killing their currency, the United States reckless foreign policy is. It's pretty obvious, what with the sanctions and us backing out of the deal that was and is still working that we've decided it's time for a "regime change". It's the same bloody thing we did in Iraq with the added bonus that we're going to wreck their economy first.
What bothers me is that not only is it so transparent what we're doing but that nobody particularity cares. You'd think Americans on all sides would be pretty angry that we're overthrowing gov'ts left and right. Outside of a few left wing news outlets and the BBC I don't see anyone talking about it.
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Thanks for the hot tip!
Even the summary says what is really destroying the currency - " deliberate circulation of rumors and fake news". Telegram (the app) is not at fault. It might be ENABLING the destruction of the currency, but it's not CAUSING it.
The " fake news on Telegram" is no more fake then the government propaganda pretending that everything is fine and dandy. Everyone knows the government and the tightly controlled media is lying, they have no choice but to seek the truth elsewhere which makes them a easy target for manipulators and scammers
Hamas upgrading the rockets they bombard Israel with daily to be nuclear...
Israel and Palestine are so close they would essentially be nuking themselves.
I wonder how much the value of solid gold is affected by politics vs the fiat funny money countries worldwide print out.
I'm thinking almost nil.
So you support nuclear proliferation now? Just trying to be clear on this.
As for 'regime change', President Trump hasn't started any wars, nor does he have the support of the many news outlets that pretended to be tricked after reporting all the nonsensical propaganda that helped start the war in Iraq.
And Hamas would simply say that Israel detonated the Nuke to make Hamas look bad.
Meh, Iran with nuclear weapons would probably be one of the most stabilizing events that could happen in the region, even if it did hurt the US's feelings that the country which embarrassed them still refuses to do as it is told.
Do you think they would care if they did?
They are living their lives by very different rules to you or I.
that "Plane full of cash and gold" was us giving them back money that was theirs. We'd gotten ahold of about $6 billion of their money and basically stole it. You can do that if you're at war. We're not.
And they don't have nukes. Even after Trump reneged on the deal they keep following it. Just like Iraq there are no weapons of mass destruction. We've got independent investigators confirming that.
Fact it, Trump wants a war. Just like Bush needed one to stay in power. You know this. You're either Trolling or being paid to Troll. Either way it pisses me off. We're spending trillions overthrowing governments. Meanwhile we don't have universal healthcare and tuition free college. Both of which are killing us on the competitive world stage.
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is that telegram is somehow responsible for spreading fake news. It's just another assault on privacy as Telegram offers excellent privacy, and is developing it's own blockchain. It's just another attack on free speech and sound money
USA's attempts at meddling several decades ago is how Khomeini got into power. Meddling backfires more often than not. You make it sound like a sure-shot thing. The newer crew always think they are better at meddling.
The rest of your accusations are too vague to evaluate. No negotiations will give us everything we want; we'll have to make trade-offs. To think one can magically get everything they want without making concessions to the other side is silly and/or arrogant.
Table-ized A.I.
If you want Real currency you have to go to Brazil.
Good to know that you agree the current administration is reckless for tearing up the deal that existed to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons. (btw this is actually an obvious strawman, since it accuses your opponent in the argument of something that they actually oppose.) There is no evidence that Iran was trying to cheat on the deal in any serious way. If anything, the removal of the deal (including the parts allowing inspections) make it much more likely that Iran will develop nuclear weapons.
Genocides is good, right? The Iranian controlled militias in northern Iraq are actively cleansing out the Shia and enslaving the few remaining non-muslim populations.
Sounds like you saw news about people dying in Yemen, and just assumed that the bogeyman of the year must be to blame, like an obedient sheeple.
Seriously. The reason for the Clergy being so prevalent in Iran is that when we overthrew their democratically elected gov't and installed the Shah the one place their people could foment a rebellion was in the Mosques. So we've got ourselves to thank for radicalizing Iran.
As for the Military, the most powerful nation on earth has repeatedly signaled a desire to invade. They're gonna want a strong military. They can't win, but they can hope to give us a bloody enough nose that we turn around and go home.
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They do not want to destroy their own holy lands. That would defeat their purpose.