alt.hn

5/3/2026 at 1:22:41 AM

A network smuggling Starlink tech into Iran to beat internet blackout

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgzk91leweo

by 1659447091

5/3/2026 at 6:32:45 AM

On other news, Iran is banning IPv6, UDP, DNS, ICMP to tighten the blackout

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/permanent-ban-ipv6-forced-nat...

by miohtama

5/3/2026 at 7:01:04 AM

It's no longer a ban / blacklist. It's a whitelist with extremely strict rules and DPI inspection. You can connect to example.com ONLY if it is whitelisted, and only if you use this specific IP and Port, with this specific TLS handshake fingerprint and certificate, and the first N packets follow these timing / length patterns.

A few weeks ago a very clever way to bypass the SNI whitelist was introduced [1] (SNI spoofing for cloudflare!) but it was subsequently blocked. Some claim that at this moment all outbound TCP connections are terminated inside the firewall / ISPs and therefore methods like [1] based on injecting fake or problematic TCP packets no longer work. It seems like even SYN-free TCP connections (again, breaking protocol) are no longer accessible.

[1] https://github.com/therealaleph/sni-spoofing-rust

by pwdisswordfishq

5/3/2026 at 7:01:38 AM

Are there other sources than a linkedin post? I try to be a bit more critical of information in times of war. God knows we've been lied to before, by all sides. I've seen janitorial schedules be presented as a terrorist sign in sheets.

by wesselbindt

5/3/2026 at 8:36:25 AM

The LinkedIn post has the original Persian text attached.

Also there is no point to lie about this

by miohtama

5/4/2026 at 2:20:52 AM

I've seen stories come out in major news outlets about every man needing to have the same haircut as Kim Jong Un. Something that didn't need lying about imo, but people did anyway. Don't underestimate what people will lie about in times of war.

And some attached pdf that I could have an LLM generate in a minute I wouldn't call a source. I'm talking about a source in the sense of journalism -- something I cannot find for this story.

by wesselbindt

5/3/2026 at 12:39:35 PM

After having supported activists in egypt during the arab spring I've come to learn that it's all just coopted regime change nonsense sprinkled with "feel good activism" for Westerners. No one in Egypt is even remotely better off now. Just let Iranians deal with this on their own. From what I've researched, our impression of what their lives are supposedly like is totally shaped by intelligence services and cointelpro media anyways so why bother to get involved. We'll only make things worse for the average Iranian.

by jasonvorhe

5/3/2026 at 3:49:58 AM

I learned from a BSides presentation that Ukranian military are using Starlink trancievers placed in pits to beat ground-based signal detection. Do with that what you will.

by adiabatichottub

5/3/2026 at 5:35:15 AM

I heard that Iran is just looking for Starlink SSIDs so if you turn off Wi-Fi they won't find it.

by wmf

5/3/2026 at 7:27:16 AM

The user has to be more careful. If he has installed any official Iranian apps (like banking or communication) or even visits such a website their IP address will be recorded and most certainly looked into. Even if they use split tunneling for domestic websites, some apps intentionally try to ping unreachable servers from Iran (For instance "Bale" might ping a sentry instance hosted outside of Iran, normally inaccessible from the domestic intranet) to catch the more careful users.

by pwdisswordfishq

5/4/2026 at 2:25:24 AM

There's two kind of separate problems, a ground based force with >10GHz band portable spectrum analyzers and the training to use them to locate the terminal emissions, or just somebody with very low-cost/free android wifi analyzer app or a $200 handheld <6GHz spectrum analyzer to locate 802.11ac/ax WAPs (nevermind if the SSID is broadcast or not).

google image search "iran confiscates satellite dishes" for some example photos from their domestic media.

https://www.google.com/search?num=10&q=iran+confiscates+sate...

There's also the problem of just physically identifying starlink terminals on roofs. Iran has gone on sprees of confiscating ku band TVRO satellite dishes for a long time.

It's entirely possible to use a starlink terminal with exclusively wired ethernet stuff, including usb-c to gigabit ethernet adapters plugged into android phones, it just takes some training and discipline for the ordinary non technical user.

by walrus01

5/3/2026 at 4:15:26 AM

Wouldn't they be easily detected from airborne drones?

by tantalor

5/3/2026 at 4:48:55 AM

No, because the collimating effect on the beam would still require you to have line of sight to the emitter, and if a drone is able to get that close without being intercepted then something else has already gone wrong.

But this is also an example of weird absolutist thinking about military tactics: is it unbeatable? No. Does it complicate the surveillance and detection picture? Yes.

by XorNot

5/3/2026 at 6:35:50 AM

Are you under the impression that the starlink terminals in Iran are for US military?

by pwndByDeath

5/3/2026 at 7:11:26 AM

The parent comment here was about usage in Ukraine rather than Iran

by spRite75

5/3/2026 at 8:01:53 AM

I’d have thought the idea that you should have shot down the drone that’s hunting you might be a clue it’s not a comment aimed at the average domestic WiFi user.

by lostlogin

5/3/2026 at 5:36:23 AM

[flagged]

by fuckthecia

5/3/2026 at 5:45:36 AM

[flagged]

by tardedmeme

5/3/2026 at 6:04:13 AM

Russia/Muscovy also started their long imperial expansion in the mid-1500s, with the wars of Ivan the Terrible. A well-known CIA plant, of course. /s

Most of Europe east of the Elbe has personal experience with Russian imperial rule, and 90%+ people will tell you "never again". The rest are mostly traitors hoping for jobs under a new occupation regime.

Calling what happens in Ukraine an "ethnic conflict" is like calling the genocide and deportation of American Indians "a heated dispute over lucrative real property" or calling the Atlantic slave trade "movement of affordable workforce". It is a freaking war of conquest motivated by sense of entitlement of a rotten empire which hasn't yet fully understood that its heyday is long gone and now is learning the hard way.

The German imperial madness took two massive military defeats to dissipate. Let us hope that the Russian imperial madness will finally suffer the same fate in front of our eyes. At this point of history, having New Tatarstan there instead of Russia would bring Eastern Europe a lot more peace and prosperity. We could call the new entity a Silicon Horde.

by inglor_cz

5/3/2026 at 12:40:52 PM

It doesn't because it's historically inaccurate.

by jasonvorhe

5/3/2026 at 7:08:48 AM

US military "tested" some of its new weapons during the last war on Iran, in one case killing more than 15 kids [1]. So US tech is famous for improving life quality in Iran.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/world/middleeast/us-preci...

by hrmon

5/3/2026 at 8:53:26 AM

15? There were more than a hundred girls killed in their school by an american missile, just in one of the strikes among many, many thousands. And I think it is just a small part which escaped the western information blockade on the war you started with Iran, most of what happened is not reported.

by ajewhere2

5/3/2026 at 7:20:21 AM

Just because the US sucks doesn't mean the Shia Theocratic thugs ruling Iran don't ALSO suck.

by UltraSane

5/3/2026 at 7:37:15 AM

Excuse the pedantry but it's probably more accurate to describe Iran as a military dicatorship more than a theocracy. Yes, there's a Supreme Leader but the day-to-day government is really run by the IRGC. Not that one is necessarily better than the other, mind you. It's a bit like describing the UK as a monarchy (yes the British monarch is more of a figurehead than the Ayatollah is).

But look at all our self-proclaimed enemeies (eg Cuba, North Korea, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Iran) and all of that end of becoming a varying degree of autocratic. None of these countries ends up wanting to be a US puppet. I can't think of a single example where foreign inteference (or war) has had the citizenry welcome foreign powers as liberators or otherwise increased freedoms or conditions in a country for those citizens.

You might be tempted to say apartheid South Africa but there's a key difference. South Africa wasn't an enemy. It was an ally. Sanctions don't work on enemies. They only work on allies.

However unpoular the IRGC or the Supreme Leader are in Iran, the US and Israel are less popular. We should never forget that the Ayatollah is a direct product of US inteference as we couped their democratically elected government to install a brutal regime under the Shah. Look up the history of SAVAK some time.

by jmyeet

5/3/2026 at 7:43:47 AM

> I can't think of a single example where foreign inteference [sic] (or war) has had the citizenry welcome foreign powers as liberators or otherwise increased freedoms or conditions in a country for those citizens.

That's one of the lines people spew as if it is a tautology without actually thinking about its accuracy. Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, need more examples?

Iranians right now also tend to disagree with you too...

by tgma

5/3/2026 at 12:43:36 PM

This claim only works if you stick very closely to the western post WW2 narrative that is neither accurate nor robust enough to withstand a few hours of research.

by jasonvorhe

5/3/2026 at 8:04:58 PM

Don't be vague.

by UltraSane

5/3/2026 at 8:00:17 AM

I should've said post-1945. That was imprecise. My bad. Economic sanctions are largely a post-1945 tool. Sure there are examples like stopping oil exports to Imperial Japan but sanctions as an economic regime where a large part of the world isolates you economically didn't really happen until the Cold War as the US remade the economic order post-1945. Since then we have a 100% failure rate for economic sanctions of enemies.

But let's discuss your examples.

Germany was obliterated, levelled. They supported their own war effort basically until the day the war ended. Deaths in the camps happened basically up until liberation. In some cases it was a few days before as the SS fled the Allies. I'm not sure total military defeat counts as being welcomed.

Japan? They were prepared to fight to the death. It's debated why Japan ultimately surrendered. The popular version is because of the atomic bombs. A likely more accurate reason is because the USSR entered the war. When exactly did they welcome us?

France was occupied by Germany so yes, they welcomed those who liberated them from their foreign occupiers. How does that relate to Iran?

South Korea depends on what you're referring to. First there was the Japanese occupation that ended with Japan's surrender in 1945. Again, like France, we removed their occupiers. But then we installed a military dicatatorship and started a war because communism. It's also worth noting that North Korea was wealtheir than South Korea until the 1970s. It took decades of military occupation (in the south) and economic sanctions to reverse that. Oh and South Korea is now facing total population collapse within 2-3 generations so there's that too.

by jmyeet

5/3/2026 at 10:21:35 AM

Changing the goalposts much? From no one was ever happy not even once to limiting to an arbitrary date in the calendar. I can't take your rant seriously. Of course there have been wars whose results improve the conditions of the population. There is no denying that.

> France... How does that relate to Iran?

Iran is also occupied by Mullah-IRGC-Palestine axis that have no overlap with the values 85%+ of the population. Iran pays Hezbollah members ~$1800/month when their own citizens are in poverty below $100. Their country is objectively occupied and resources are being raided by a foreign group and literally kills anyone that complains.

You also mentioned this in your original post which prima facie shows your knowledge of the Persian people is precisely zero:

> However unpoular [sic] the IRGC or the Supreme Leader are in Iran, the US and Israel are less popular.

by tgma

5/3/2026 at 10:33:36 AM

Did you just say -Palestine axis? Like they're the ones calling the shots here?

Before USA/Israel started bombing girls' schools and creating oil rain over all of Tehran, there were protests against the rulership that had to be brutally repressed. After that, there were people in the streets waving Iranian flags in Tehran.

by nixon_why69

5/3/2026 at 10:39:25 AM

The 1979 revolutionaries trained for guerrilla warfare in PLO Camps in Lebanon and Jordan.

by tgma

5/3/2026 at 11:15:25 AM

All of them? Did they forget Farsi? Change their opinions on various Imams?

Brother, I am not a fan of the Iranian government but if you're claiming Iran is occupied by a foreign Palestinian axis then you have lost the plot.

by nixon_why69

5/3/2026 at 7:44:58 PM

Iran is occupied by a foreign Shia axis that when it came into power celebrated that it was the victory over/destroyer of Persia/Persian culture.

Iran has pulled in Shia proxies from the surrounding countries during the war because it is an occupying theology/government.

A not insignificant number of IRGC leadership are Iraqi born.

by _DeadFred_

5/3/2026 at 9:42:02 AM

One detail about the USSR joining against Japan, they sent mechanized divisions that had survived the eastern front in europe to Manchuria against the most prestigious units of the Japanese army which had mostly been suppressing farmers. The Russians swept across the entire region in weeks. So that's going to turn some heads in high command.

by nixon_why69

5/3/2026 at 8:23:28 AM

It's always amusing when some people throw SK in a debates like this. Clearly shows they don't even know nor Park nor what came after him.

by justsomehnguy

5/3/2026 at 7:20:45 PM

>I can't think of a single example where foreign inteference (or war) has had the citizenry welcome foreign powers as liberators or otherwise increased freedoms or conditions in a country for those citizens.

When Japan occupied the Netherlands East Indies in the early weeks of 1942, many Indonesians celebrated, seeing the Japanese army as the fulfillment of a prophecy attributed to Jayabaya. He had foretold a time when white men would establish their rule over Java and oppress the people for many years, only to be driven out by "yellow men from the north." According to Jayabaya, these "yellow dwarves" would remain for one crop cycle (interpreted as 3 1/2 years, corresponding to the duration of Japanese occupation), after which Java would be free from foreign domination. To most Javanese, Japan was seen as a liberator, as the prophecy appeared to be fulfilled.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayabaya

(To One Piece readers) I remembered this from this post https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePiece/comments/xb3lx/spoilers_jo...

by CodeArtisan

5/3/2026 at 9:56:11 AM

> I can't think of a single example where foreign inteference (or war) has had the citizenry welcome foreign powers as liberators or otherwise increased freedoms or conditions in a country for those citizens.

Panama

by 1659447091

5/3/2026 at 5:24:57 PM

> I can't think of a single example where foreign inteference (or war) has had the citizenry welcome foreign powers as liberators or otherwise increased freedoms or conditions in a country for those citizens.

Think of:

West Germany, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Baltic States, Balkans

by sixsevenrot

5/3/2026 at 7:46:11 AM

An argument can be made that in a global trade system everyone is, to a degree, an ally, since we all depend on each other economically.

A counter-argument could be that sanctions, when overused[0], weaken that very point by reducing this interdependence.

[0] This is not an opinion on whether or not they are currently overused.

by strogonoff

5/3/2026 at 8:29:10 AM

>However unpoular the IRGC or the Supreme Leader are in Iran, the US and Israel are less popular.

That's just wishful thinking on your part. Every iranian i speak to curses their regime and praise trump and netanyahu. Their level of support for the people bombing their country is incredible.

by FridayoLeary

5/3/2026 at 8:48:13 AM

Another shining example of how the diaspora is a representative sample from whence they came (not).

We've seen this with the Cuban diaspora, who were heavily anti-Castro. I mean let's just consider for a second who would flee a regime? Batista loyalists, mostly. So is it any surprise? This myth-making has become almost comical. Ted Cruz, for example, hates communism because Batista tortured his father [1].

The Persian diaspora is really no different. It's incredibly reactionary [2][3]. They were implicated in the attack on pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA, for example.

The US and Israel are deeply popular in Iran. These are the same people who killed almost 200 school girls by double tapping a school. Is that really a surprise?

[1]: https://x.com/KavehAbbasian/status/1935738249995022846

[2]: https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-dilemmas-of-americas-i...

[3]: https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/irans-north-a...

by jmyeet

5/3/2026 at 12:40:33 PM

[flagged]

by FridayoLeary

5/3/2026 at 1:31:15 PM

>You don't hear american expats or expats from any other western country talking about how much they hate their regime.

As an American expat this is laughable to me, plenty of my peers shit on the US government in general and Trump's administration in particular.

by CapricornNoble

5/3/2026 at 5:21:26 AM

We are not the good guys in iran

by fchicken

5/4/2026 at 3:18:29 PM

Compared to the IRGC? Ie. the other side? Yes we are. By an extreme amount too.

by spwa4

5/3/2026 at 5:29:10 AM

On the specific concerns of giving internet to civilians, yes you are.

I just don't know if those civilians will trust you. They have plenty of reasons not to.

by marcosdumay

5/3/2026 at 5:29:00 AM

You are not we

by Jabrov

5/3/2026 at 6:32:54 AM

The person takes the responsibility; you are excluding him from the society that you implicitly claim to represent. These two are very different intentions.

by Mikhail_Edoshin

5/3/2026 at 6:45:00 AM

Wanting the ordinary Iranian civilian to have uncensored, properly functioning broadband Internet service (no better or no worse than what you have sitting in your house right now) is a good thing no matter where you stand on the topic of current military action by either side.

by walrus01

5/3/2026 at 11:22:35 AM

I'm not sure either side in Trump vs the Ayatollahs is good. I feel for the ordinary people though who are the ones wanting Stalinks.

by tim333

5/3/2026 at 3:21:33 AM

Maybe we need to start a GoFundMe to sponsor some of these Starlink terminals.... ?

by mlmonkey

5/3/2026 at 3:25:04 AM

It’s the death penalty for anyone caught with one.

by rblatz

5/3/2026 at 4:13:43 AM

Per the article, it's seemingly not?

>Last year, the Iranian government passed legislation that made using, buying or selling Starlink devices punishable by up to two years in prison. The jail term for distributing or importing more than 10 devices can be up to 10 years.

by Levitz

5/3/2026 at 4:39:29 AM

Yeah but then Hesam died [1] ... yesterday in jail before having a trial. He was 40, wasn't an activist and had two daughters.

EDIT: To provide more context: Let's say that "John" is arrested for having had "illegal internet access" (not even owning a starlink). Even if he has a trial, the prosecutor can, and will, argue that he could have used his a secure channel to collaborate with the Mossad and CIA. If they find any unfavorable social media posts on his phone (and believe me, they will) they will say that he has endangered the national security by encouraging unrest and violent protests. This would then amount to waging war against God and death penalty.

If his phone is so clean that they don't find anything, it must be the fact that he is an agent, a mercenary. They will torture him until he confesses to having collaborated with Mossad. They will then air a forced confession on TV.

John might get lucky and have a caring family member from IRGC. In that case you might be right, he will only receive a prison sentence. If he had had a higher ranking IRGC family member he could even go further and start selling his starlink VPN for around $5 / GB. It's not even a hypothetical situation, I had to buy one of these (and it indeed was a starlink connection) four weeks ago ...

[1] https://x.com/indypersian/status/2050088043118211341

by pwdisswordfishq

5/3/2026 at 9:20:20 AM

“So, what do you use your Internet access for? What could be worth risking life in prison - or worse - for? Not to mention the exorbitant pricing!?”

“I correct people on Hacker News.”

“Worth it.”

by jiggawatts

5/3/2026 at 5:28:33 AM

The regime has killed 40k of their own citizens; they don’t seem to be going through due process and sentencing in court…

by nickff

5/3/2026 at 4:22:40 AM

Per reports as of a few days ago, yes there are very much murdering people with starlink. Last year was before the current crisis. People are being murdered in the streets daily by the regime, and ordinary people are desperate for it to end.

by nullsanity

5/3/2026 at 6:34:54 AM

In all fairness, that's true for a lot of things in Iran, and some of those are not actually enforced or only enforced some of the time (which is where the forcibly transitioning gay people thing came from).

by Pay08

5/3/2026 at 3:39:35 AM

Some things are worth the risk.

by squigz

5/3/2026 at 3:45:35 AM

The point being that we need to not incriminate these people.

by donkey_brains

5/3/2026 at 7:06:05 AM

[flagged]

by throwaway27448

5/3/2026 at 7:21:31 AM

[flagged]

by UltraSane

5/3/2026 at 8:30:39 AM

[flagged]

by FridayoLeary

5/3/2026 at 9:19:20 AM

Cuz i'm not a credulous rube, and I know a terrorist state when I see one. I'll believe iran is capable of the kind of terror that israel has perpetrated on video every for my entire life when I see the evidence

If that makes me an antisemite fine. The word seems to just mean "person who criticizes an obviously terrorist state" anyway. Nothing hezbollah has ever done can justify invasion; if it did, the entire world would have used the same justification to bomb telaviv eighty years ago and every decade since

by throwaway27448

5/3/2026 at 3:57:30 PM

Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas all explicitly want to destroy Israel. They say this loudly and proudly. Israel just wants to not be destroyed and endlessly attacked. If Israel is a "terrorist state" then so is Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran.

by UltraSane

5/3/2026 at 5:50:10 AM

I know how to smuggle starlink devices in a mass scale into Iran.

by m00dy

5/3/2026 at 6:12:11 AM

Starship?

by dotancohen

5/3/2026 at 2:40:04 PM

are meant to fly...

by pixel_popping

5/3/2026 at 3:52:54 PM

How much stars would a Starship ship, if a Starship could ship stars?

by dotancohen

5/3/2026 at 6:50:22 AM

Netblocks has been doing some very good work tracking the presence or absence of known IP blocks previously announced by Iranian ASNs. The charts really speak for themselves.

For those who don't keep track of backbone ISP topologies: Iran has 3 or 4 major entirely government controlled ASNs which all domestic ISPs are obligated to be downstream of.

The government controlled AS run all the international transit connections (at the BGP level) and also the physical fiber/longhaul DWDM systems into a few neighboring countries. It makes it very easy to cut off all the downstream domestic only ISPs.

https://netblocks.org/

by walrus01

5/3/2026 at 10:18:34 AM

[flagged]

by aitrender

5/3/2026 at 12:02:33 PM

[dead]

by stefantalpalaru

5/3/2026 at 5:08:29 AM

[flagged]

by coliveira

5/3/2026 at 5:24:11 AM

If the options for Iran are to have illegitimate government controlled by Israel or the Ayatollahs, which would you pick?

by nandomrumber

5/3/2026 at 5:27:11 AM

Both are terrible options, why should I root for one of them? Look what Israel is doing in Gaza, are they gonna be good for Iran now?

by coliveira

5/3/2026 at 6:37:45 AM

[flagged]

by dotancohen

5/3/2026 at 1:22:28 PM

Ok, propaganda machine, this must be fantastic.

by coliveira

5/3/2026 at 3:48:32 PM

The numbers come from the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

by dotancohen

5/3/2026 at 9:31:57 AM

The 90% figure is widely considered to be bullshit. Actual civilian-to-combatant ratios are around 1:1 in war, a la 50%. Granted, it's higher for urban warfare.

by Pay08

5/3/2026 at 3:52:01 PM 

  > The 90% figure is widely considered to be bullshit.
The 90% figure is the UN claim.

by dotancohen

5/3/2026 at 6:20:50 AM

Obviously Ayatollah as they are Iranian themselves. And Israel is already actively genociding another country so not sure if they wouldn't do it in Iran

by ozgrakkurt

5/3/2026 at 5:30:11 AM

[flagged]

by fuckthecia

5/3/2026 at 12:31:59 PM

[dead]

by allah69

5/3/2026 at 5:08:48 AM

[flagged]

by jmyeet

5/3/2026 at 5:20:02 AM

I clicked through to the source for Amnesty International scrutinizing the claims and that likely 3000 people have died and it reads:

> On 17 January, in a public speech, Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, said “thousands of people” were killed. Since then, on 21January, Iran’s Supreme Council of National Security issued a statement that 3,117 people were killed during the uprising. However, on 16 January 2026, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Mai Sato, said in a media interview that at least 5,000 people had been killed, noting that according to information she received from medical sources, the death toll might be as high as 20,000

The only way for someone to read that as “likely 3000 people have died” is if one takes the Iranian numbers as fact. For those whose experience is that authoritarian states crushing protests provide accurate numbers this might be somewhat convincing. To say nothing of the fact that this is a stupendous number of people.

I found it convincing of the opposite: that this is not a neutral summary of the context.

by arjie

5/3/2026 at 5:39:03 AM

> this is not a neutral summary of the context

Where do you prefer to get neutral summaries from?

by verisimi

5/3/2026 at 5:20:34 AM

> The US simply can't operate there. Israel can. Israel is made up of many ethnic groups, including people who are ethnically Persian and speak perfect Farsi.

The US has hundreds of thousands of ethnic Iranian immigrants, not sure where you got the idea that it's not made up of many ethnic groups.

> It seems likely that at least 3000 died but were these protestors brutally crushed by the government or a the government quashing a foreign-backed uprising? We've established the foreign powers armed some of these groups;

I am myself someone who rabidly hates US imperialism but when you use US imperialism to justify slaughtering thousands of civilians you lose all credibility and will not be able to convince anyone who disagrees with you of anything, no matter how many sources you link. Even if the US instigated the protests, and even if it were "only" 3000 dead, killing 3000 protestors is Very Bad and you don't need to go out of your way to justify it. It is possible for both US imperialism to be bad and for an authoritarian religious regime killing innocent people to be bad. One's thinking should be more nuanced than a struct with a single bool.

by applfanboysbgon

5/3/2026 at 5:21:48 AM

Also to point out that the U.S actively censors us too. It blocks Iranian government websites, and a whole list of sites that supports it.

by hirako2000

5/3/2026 at 5:16:57 AM

I have little doubt the US armed Kurds to add to Iran's woes, however

> Trump openly admiited it [2].

isn't a credible source, as the linked article admits:

  Iran analyst Neil Quilliam of the United Kingdom’s Chatham House think tank, told Al Jazeera that it’s hard to assign much weight to Trump’s statements because of the claims and counterclaims often coming from him and his administration.
The current POTUS contradicts himself from one day to the next and frequently waffles for hours spouting factually incorrect material.

by defrost

5/3/2026 at 6:09:01 AM

So in court there's the concept of hearsay, which generally makes certain statements inadmissble as evidence. The classic example is me testifying "Alice said Bob told her he did it".

One of the exceptions to hearsay is called the admission against interest. That means that if you say something that hurts your case or hurts you in some other way (eg implicating you in a crime) then you will generally be allowed to testify to that.

So this isn't a court of law obviously but I still find this analogy useful. Yes, Trump says some crazy stuff and even openly lies. All of that's true. But that doesn't mean you should ignore everything he says. What he says can be corroborated (or contradicted) but it also carries weight if it's an admission against interest.

In this case, Trump claiming to have armed "protesters" is absolutely an admission against interest. It undercuts American propaganda that the Iranian regime brutally crushed an organic protest by ordinary citizens. As such, at least for me, the statement carries more weight. You can still look at the statement and see if other evidence contradicts or suports it of course.

by jmyeet

5/3/2026 at 9:07:03 AM

Sure. Understood.

Makes sense for any normal person.

Trump is still a 100% unreliable witness to almost anything, more so in recent years as he's cognitively wobbling all over the clock.

Again, I'm not opposed to your thesis here, just pointing out Trump's words count for nothing; he's a frequent traveller on the path of "admissions against interest" - arming rebels, shooting people in Times Square, war crimes on the open seas, staring directly into the sun .. he's down for all of that and it seemingly slides right off.

by defrost

5/3/2026 at 5:36:58 AM

None of your points changes anything: The Iranian government and the IRGC are still a despicable, oppressive, and brutal regime, holding both the People of Iran hostage in their own country, and also coordinating violence against Israel in the entire Middle East.

by 9dev

5/3/2026 at 5:11:53 AM

[flagged]

by weregiraffe

5/3/2026 at 5:46:03 AM

the logistics of killing 30000 people in 2 days is absurd. visit the killing fields in cambodia to understand what a butchering of this magnitude would entail.

their lies dont even pass the sniff test.

but still this comment gets downvoted because the whole internet is flooded with israeli bots to manufacture consent for this bs

in my view israel needs to be sanctioned until it gives up its nuclear weapons. it is a shame for humanity that this pariah apartheid state is allowed to exist, stoke conflicts everywhere and murder people in neighboring countries

by shameonus

5/3/2026 at 6:18:04 AM

"the logistics of killing 30000 people in 2 days is absurd. "

The Nazis managed to murder 35000 people within 2 days at Babiy Yar, in one single region of Ukraine, with no prepared specialized infrastructure, just bussing them to a ravine and shooting them.

Back then Kiev region had about 2 million people. The entire Iran has 90 million, 45 times more.

by inglor_cz

5/3/2026 at 8:32:24 AM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar

> The commander of the Einsatzkommando reported two days later:

> > The difficulties resulting from such a large scale action—in particular concerning the seizure—were overcome in Kiev by requesting the Jewish population through wall posters to move. Although only a participation of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 Jews had been expected at first, more than 30,000 Jews arrived who, until the very moment of their execution, still believed in their resettlement, thanks to an extremely clever organization.

"no prepared specialized infrastructure, just bussing them to a ravine and shooting them" ... yet "extremely clever organization", a special order posted 3 days prior, which the victims followed. How do you envision such a scenario playing out in Iran?

And why not simply show the evidence? Whoever makes the claim, unless they're lying, is basing the claim on something. So where is it?

by customguy

5/3/2026 at 8:34:07 AM

It is as simple as showing the 30000 new graves in a week. But somehow there is no imaging satellites working in the region.

by justsomehnguy

5/3/2026 at 5:51:21 AM

[flagged]

by ars

5/3/2026 at 9:00:36 AM

The CIA and MI5 must be really disperate.

by hulitu

5/3/2026 at 5:39:08 AM

israel should be sanctioned until it gives up its nuclear weapons

by shameonus

5/3/2026 at 12:32:23 PM

[dead]

by allah69

5/3/2026 at 4:26:22 AM

I thought that was exactly how the spies got made. As Iranians figured they could just narrow the signal.

by hirako2000

5/3/2026 at 2:30:53 AM

I suspect the Internet blackout in Iran is not actually related to its citizens - it isn't about silencing its citizens.

It is to prevent hacking and tracking by US and Israel of what is going on over there, it is defensive since it has been shown that Iran's connected infrastructure is thoroughly compromised.

by bhouston

5/3/2026 at 2:43:30 AM

It’s 100% to prevent citizens from becoming organized. The regime is most fearful of this.

by burnrate

5/3/2026 at 2:49:54 AM

There's multiple motives, not just counter-organization. A media blackout prevents OSINT damage analysis, much like how the IDF and CENTCOM both censor reporting of attacks on their in-theater installations.

by bigyabai

5/3/2026 at 6:30:12 AM

They could easily just censor that, especially since a dictatorship has far more control over the media compared to democracies.

by Pay08

5/3/2026 at 6:58:46 AM

The OSINT is a bigger threat than the state media in Iran, hence the internet blackout.

by bigyabai

5/3/2026 at 8:01:50 AM

No, the internet blackout is so their populace doesn't rise up against them.

by Pay08

5/3/2026 at 4:42:19 PM

Sorry, but that's not the reason. This is a symmetrical response to CENTCOM and the Israeli Military Censor's policy of freezing OSINT in-theater.

In any case, it's perfectly clear that the internet blackout didn't stop the protests. The protests were never going to topple the government, the CIA/Mossad needs the Kurds to fight the IRGC (and the Kurds don't want to fight).

by bigyabai

5/3/2026 at 4:56:22 PM

Is that why they did similar blackouts in 2019, 2022, and 2024 too?

by Pay08

5/3/2026 at 5:07:31 PM

It absolutely could be one of the motives, I'm not a member of the IRGC so I couldn't tell you for certain.

I do know that the IDF and CENTCOM have been censoring in-theater OSINT for decades, and we also know that Iran has the incentives to do the same thing with a larger population. Lacking the CIA and Mossad's censorship tools, a total shutdown is not really that unexpected.

by bigyabai

5/3/2026 at 6:23:51 PM

No. What all of those dates had in common wasn't the USA or Israel, it was protests by the Iranian population.

Yes, blackout to prevent OSINT is a thing. That's not why they were doing them in 2019, 2022, and 2024 and it's not why they're doing it now (seeing as it started before the war). They're doing it to suppress their population because they fear an uprising.

by Pay08

5/3/2026 at 4:28:51 AM

How did people organize pre-Internet times though?

by tokioyoyo

5/3/2026 at 5:27:27 AM

Through social gatherings that mostly don't exist anymore.

by marcosdumay

5/3/2026 at 7:05:18 PM

You live in an imaginary reality constructed for you by the "free" western media.

It is to prevent you from organizing a civil war there. But actually you know that, just lying to yourself and others.

by ajewhere2

5/3/2026 at 4:45:04 AM

which is the exact same reason China bans Starlink.

by fgfarben

5/3/2026 at 6:48:33 AM

Chinas level of internet filtration and censorship nowhere near Iran or Russia. You just buy tourist eSIM and you're golden in China and literally everyone who wants do it.

Chinese government don't care about small percent of population accessing open internet.

by SXX

5/3/2026 at 9:17:58 PM

Why would you lie about this?

by fgfarben

5/4/2026 at 6:12:40 AM

I am from Russia even though not living there for last 4 years. And I able to compare because I have a lot of friends in Russia. Censorship and VPN blocks are bad there.

I've also been to Shanghai recently and there I can just use HK roaming eSIM and it work super fast, reliable and with no censorship. No passport required to buy it online, no anything. Same with any other tourist eSIM.

by SXX

5/3/2026 at 7:26:06 AM

FWIW NordVPN doesn't have Iran, Russia or China as their exit node.

by dzhiurgis

5/3/2026 at 8:18:45 AM

Because neither is privacy friendly and open country. It's just amount of money and effort Russia puts into blocking VPNs, proxies and encrypted communication is well beyond China. If you travel to China bypassing all the censorship is super straightforward.

In Russia whatever worked month ago will likely not work now. By this time all the wireless mobile internet in Russia is mostly whitelist-only when it works at all. And they start to test whitelists on broadband internet now.

And Iran is likely shut off internet for good until reginme collapses.

by SXX

5/3/2026 at 6:41:58 AM

I wonder why BYD is banned in the US. Are we afraid they'll be used to transport people to gatherings?

by markdown

5/3/2026 at 6:53:34 AM

I'm not from US, but China is certainly subsidize a lot of its manufacturers to capture global markets while not giving access to it's local market to western companies.

US is able to produce cars on its soil and there is no reason to give up this industry to foreign country.

It's pretty sane policy.

by SXX

5/3/2026 at 9:24:21 AM

PRC gave/gives way more managed market access to US/west than vice versa, they just historically limit to JVs where foreign partners capped at 50/50% ownership. Almost every western product that's not export controlled, PRC buys, i.e. there's way more western cars / tech in PRC market via JV tax than vice versa. Versus western approach to PRC competitive goods is functionally structural exclusion. EU on open to JVs even if they're incapable of providing same we do all the work you collect cheques value add that PRC offered, but they have audacity to ask for tier1 PRC crown jewel tech while PRC took tier2 legacy western tech, and EU wants 51% lol while not being able to allocate land, build factories, mobilize 10000s workforce on a dime like PRC. Hence PRC not biting.

The difference is PRC has confidence they can indigenize tech/processes and compete, so giving western companies broader access to even strategic sectors long term worthwhile, especially sectors they're behind in. West either doesn't have that confidence or understands they'll get stomped even in PRC parity/fair JV arrangement and better to lock in with protectionism that now surpass PRC protectionism, or have retarded JV asks.

Which is a pretty sane policy until PRC moves past parity and extend gap despite mountains of ineffective western subsidies.

by maxglute

5/3/2026 at 7:23:39 AM

There's something to be said if it connects (via ethernet or via hidden eSIM) Starlink to local Iranian internet - it is hard to access otherwise.

There is no doubt that CIA has access to Starlink, that's a massive amount of crucial intel right there in battlefront.

by dzhiurgis

5/3/2026 at 3:13:44 AM

[flagged]

by recroad

5/3/2026 at 2:54:39 AM

this

well... so obvious

by sysguest

5/3/2026 at 3:36:13 AM

I think the regime narrative is mostly made up by Americans what's the difference between any of the Arab countries from Iran. The only difference is they are not controlled by America. It the same bullshit narrative of promoting democracy but in reality it's just about pushing for a government no matter how bad as long as it supports US control.

by xbmcuser

5/3/2026 at 4:13:53 AM

Iranians are not Arabs and thousands of them got gunned down earlier this year protesting the regime. "America bad" doesn't change the fact that the Iranian people deserve a better future.

by boc

5/3/2026 at 7:51:07 AM

Who said 1000s of people were gunned down. The pedophile in chief says that and we are supposed to believe it the same guy that has won this war 10+ times already. Bombed and killed thousands of women and children. If you want the Iranian people to have better future remove the sanctions let them grow economically they will gain their own freedoms not the shackles you want on them in the name of your freedoms.

by xbmcuser

5/3/2026 at 3:51:27 AM

FYI it’s not an Arab country

by E-Reverance

5/3/2026 at 4:08:28 AM

[flagged]

by xbmcuser

5/3/2026 at 4:41:19 AM

Wow, there are no words. You would rather live in Tehran or Tel Aviv?

by halflife

5/3/2026 at 7:15:35 AM

Preferably neither, but anywhere is better than Israel. Who would want to live in a genocidal apartheid state? Iran was a democracy before US and UK intervention, perhaps they will be again when they win the illegal war against them.

by Thiez

5/3/2026 at 8:43:23 AM

Anywhere? North Korea? Sudan? Houthi’s Yemen? The hyperbole broke the charts…

by halflife

5/3/2026 at 4:27:47 AM

It's not an Arab country at all. Iranians are Persian, not Arab. Iran is low-key at war with most of the gulf Arab states.

by tptacek

5/3/2026 at 4:52:32 AM

And no where in any of my statements did I call it an Arab country. I was just calling out hypocrisy of the west when realistically Iran regime is as good or bad as any of the Arab countries or even the untouchable Israel.

by xbmcuser

5/3/2026 at 6:04:00 AM

Not sure why he is being called for this (or maybe he edited his comment?) but I re-read it a couple times and he is not saying Iran is an Arab country but comparing to the other Arab countries.

by csomar

5/3/2026 at 6:58:31 AM

It's normal. They can't debate the actual statement, so they talk about something irrelevant to derail the conversation.

by xbmcuser

5/3/2026 at 5:40:49 PM

I'm not interested in whatever it was you were debating. You referred to Arab countries, someone said (correctly) Iran isn't Arab, you said "I understand it's not an Arab monarchy", and I was moved to point out it's not an Arab anything. I'm not a party to whatever other debate you believe is happening here.

by tptacek

5/3/2026 at 3:53:33 AM

The blackout started back in January before the US even got involved.

Due to widespread protests and an attempt to crack down on coordination. This chain of events was widely reported.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Internet_blackout_in_Iran

by adam_arthur

5/3/2026 at 4:23:41 AM

It definitely ramped up with the invasion. I watched the webcam streams go dark.

by Ancapistani

5/3/2026 at 6:36:33 AM

Before the US started an open war. US has been involved in a relentless anti-Iranian campaign since before I was born (I'm 55).

by Mikhail_Edoshin

5/3/2026 at 3:17:58 AM

The internet is only off for those who don't have a special sim card, i.e. those who aren't associated with the IRGC.

by tjwebbnorfolk

5/3/2026 at 2:59:53 AM

Is Iran's domestic internet still fully operational (sans access to/from the outside world)? If so, I wouldn't think the cut-off would help much security-wise because a single Starlink terminal would allow the US/Israel domestic access.

by ShabbyDoo

5/3/2026 at 6:31:29 AM

I don't think it is. At least from Iranians I've heard from, domestic internet was online for a little while but was turned off in February or so.

by Pay08

5/3/2026 at 2:33:26 AM

How do people communicate now? And why wouldn’t that be compromised?

by stingraycharles

5/3/2026 at 4:37:24 AM

It’s defensive indeed! It’s defense against the people whom the regime is most afraid of!

by throwawayheui57

5/3/2026 at 3:29:40 AM

Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted for pointing out the obvious: yes obviously the US and Israel will exploit the information system of their enemy if they can, and it’s absolutely rational to deny them the opportunity to do so.

by mullingitover

5/3/2026 at 4:27:42 AM

Should internet and outside access be cut for people of Gaza and Lebanon too? Aren’t they targeted by Israel as well?

by throwawayheui57

5/3/2026 at 5:10:33 AM

The government of Lebanon is cooperating with Israel - it's only the southerners/Hezbollah in conflict, at least for now. The people of Gaza are cut off for the most part. The strict censorship inside Israel is what you should compare to - not as strict as a total access ban, but if you say the wrong things or take pictures of the wrong stuff you're going to prison.

by t-3

5/3/2026 at 5:36:41 AM

> but if you say the wrong things or take pictures of the wrong stuff you're going to prison.

That’s true in most counties. And for good reason.

Israel is tiny, and has a population of 10.1 million.

And a fair amount of military firepower. You probably shouldn’t be taking photos of, say, Iron Dome equipment locations.

by nandomrumber

5/3/2026 at 9:43:48 AM

The ARMA 3 devs actually almost went to prison for photographing military installations.

by Pay08

5/3/2026 at 6:20:06 AM

If they could credibly threaten your infrastructure then it makes sense. If they have no real organized hacking capabilities then no. But the US has already attacked Iran through computers before with Stuxnet and is the world leader in software and networking knowledge so it does make perfect sense for Iran to disconnect its networks from outside.

You might also have to consider the propaganda campaigns the US could run against an Iranian population with web access. If the population isn't more discontent now than it already was, "secretly" replacing commercial ad placements on western websites with US propaganda when the requests come from Iranian sources could make them discontent or inflame them further, which is bad for the Iranian government.

by AngryData

5/3/2026 at 6:51:01 AM

To say these on HN of all places!

> consider the propaganda campaigns the US could run against an Iranian population with web access.

I’m amazed at people who have access to freely express their opinions online, prescribe that 90m people should not have the right to freely access information because they somehow can’t be trusted to not fall for propaganda. What a patronizing and self righteous take.

by throwawayheui57

5/3/2026 at 7:39:00 AM

Just because I can see things from the view of the current Iranian government doesn't mean I support them or their actions. And its not like the US does nothing to suppress foreign propaganda already, they just more often try to drown it out with our own. Hell we just recently were talking about banning tiktok because just shaping what user-made videos was considered too strong of an ability to push Chinese propaganda and influence US citizens.

And yes, we already know large masses of people will readily fall for propaganda, just look at the US political landscape, look at the entire field of marketing which is just propaganda for profit. Everybody across the entire world is vulnerable to propaganda, marketing and propaganda didn't become less common going into the 21st century, it just got better and harder to identify.

by AngryData

5/3/2026 at 5:17:22 AM

My point is that the people of Iran aren’t the target of the disruption.

Remember when Ukraine used the Russian cellular internet to operate drones that destroyed numerous Russian heavy bomber aircraft? That’s what the US/Israel would logically be expected to do if there were wide open internet access in Iran.

This is obvious game theory playing out militarily, people only see political suppression but warfare is a totally different ballgame.

If China were waging large scale war on the US I’d expect the exact same countermeasures to happen.

by mullingitover

5/3/2026 at 10:17:22 AM

[flagged]

by aitrender