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.
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.
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.
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.
Related story - in February 2026, the baggage of a Dutch diplomat was confiscated. It contained three Starlink satellite modems and seven satellite phones, concealed inside a suitcase.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The one that the IR admitted to there being no Tomahawk missles? That their own failed missile bombed? That school killed by "american missles"? Gtfo with your Islamic Regime propaganda
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.
> 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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
>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.
> 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.
> 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
>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.
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?
The person takes the responsibility; you are excluding him from the society that you implicitly claim to represent. These two are very different intentions.
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.
>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.
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 ...
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, indeed. But you neglect to state why: the population hates the islamist government to such an extent that the Iranian population would use the internet to give US/Israel targeting coordinates for EVERY Iranian official.
From Parlementarians, right down to half the traffic cops.
The "supreme leader" (wonder if that comes with salami) was famously targeted so successfully because Iranians gave Mossad access to traffic camera footage across Teheran, so they could track officials' movements ... and Iranians did that with full knowledge, even with the intention that that would kill those officials.
The Iranian people hate the islamist/palestinian/terrorist axis to such an extent they'll actively collaborate to murder every last one of them. Which is another big thing the islamists are afraid of: if the population gets organized successfully, half of the IRGC will find themselves hanging from the nearest traffic light.
So you're both correct, they're terrified of their own people, and they're terrified of OSINT. You are, however, trying to spin that as support for the regime, when of course it is the exact opposite, to an extreme extent.
I'm not trying to spin it as support for the regime, there's no part of the thread where I did so. CENTCOM and the State of Israel both deal with the same threat vector, and their response is to use the NSA's SIGINT technology to track, profile and selectively censor their threats. The IRGC lacks the technology to perform that same level of domestic spycraft, so they naturally reach for a blanket blackout (much like what we see in Moscow right now).
There are objectively smart and dumb choices that can be made in this conflict. It's smart to blockade Iran as soon as the Strait closes, it's smart to prefer diplomacy to a taxpayer-funded land invasion. Similarly, I will credit the IRGC with using the blackout to their advantage. It's a tactically potent, symmetrical response that refuses to cede leverage to the BLUFOR coalition. Their cards are being played so well that it's fair to ask whether or not the CCP is just spoonfeeding them American tactics they found through Salt Typhoon.
> Similarly, I will credit the IRGC with using the blackout to their advantage ...
No it's not. It's just doing what they always do: taking hostages and threatening to damage a LOT of people's lives just so they can feel good, feel strong without of course actually being strong, with both themselves and the Iranian population living in misery just to cause problems for the rest of the world. They have made every last friend they have into enemies. Both the Iraqi and Lebanese governments are attacking them now.
Hostages when you have no way out ... is about as smart as a bank robber taking a hostage. It helps until the snipers arrive. Then, a bullet with your name on it gets loaded and no further comment from you is required. Iran's islamists are creating a situation where the entire world has no other choice but to destroy them.
It is beyond stupid. The outcome they are desperate to create would utterly destroy THEM. And in their desperate attempts to so that they're giving everyone who might have chosen to protect them into enemies screaming at the world that they need to be dealt with.
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).
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.
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.
Even if you do wholeheartedly believe that, then you'd also be willing to concede that it's also intended to suppress Mossad and CIA operatives working domestically. It's not possible to argue that the only motivation is suppressing domestic backlash.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
> 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.
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.
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.
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.
On other news, Iran is banning IPv6, UDP, DNS, ICMP to tighten the blackout
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/permanent-ban-ipv6-forced-nat...
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
Archive - https://ghostarchive.org/archive/BjCwU
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.
The LinkedIn post has the original Persian text attached.
Also there is no point to lie about this
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.
Related story - in February 2026, the baggage of a Dutch diplomat was confiscated. It contained three Starlink satellite modems and seven satellite phones, concealed inside a suitcase.
https://karat.substack.com/p/a-diplomatic-suitcase-at-imam-k...
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.
I heard that Iran is just looking for Starlink SSIDs so if you turn off Wi-Fi they won't find it.
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.
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.
Wouldn't they be easily detected from airborne drones?
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.
Are you under the impression that the starlink terminals in Iran are for US military?
The parent comment here was about usage in Ukraine rather than Iran
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.
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...
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.
The one that the IR admitted to there being no Tomahawk missles? That their own failed missile bombed? That school killed by "american missles"? Gtfo with your Islamic Regime propaganda
Just because the US sucks doesn't mean the Shia Theocratic thugs ruling Iran don't ALSO suck.
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.
> 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...
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.
Don't be vague.
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.
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.
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.
The 1979 revolutionaries trained for guerrilla warfare in PLO Camps in Lebanon and Jordan.
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.
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.
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.
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.
>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...
> 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
> 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
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.
>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.
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...
We are not the good guys in iran
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.
Compared to the IRGC? Ie. the other side? Yes we are. By an extreme amount too.
You are not we
The person takes the responsibility; you are excluding him from the society that you implicitly claim to represent. These two are very different intentions.
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.
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.
Maybe we need to start a GoFundMe to sponsor some of these Starlink terminals.... ?
It’s the death penalty for anyone caught with one.
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.
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
“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.”
Shocking, but it may soon be (or is currently) true:
"Iran Prepares Death Penalty Law for Starlink Internet Use"
https://iranwire.com/en/news/145471-iran-prepares-death-pena...
The regime has killed 40k of their own citizens; they don’t seem to be going through due process and sentencing in court…
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.
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).
Some things are worth the risk.
The point being that we need to not incriminate these people.
I know how to smuggle starlink devices in a mass scale into Iran.
Starship?
are meant to fly...
How much stars would a Starship ship, if a Starship could ship stars?
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/
The CIA and MI5 must be really disperate.
israel should be sanctioned until it gives up its nuclear weapons
I thought that was exactly how the spies got made. As Iranians figured they could just narrow the signal.
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.
It’s 100% to prevent citizens from becoming organized. The regime is most fearful of this.
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.
They could easily just censor that, especially since a dictatorship has far more control over the media compared to democracies.
The OSINT is a bigger threat than the state media in Iran, hence the internet blackout.
Yeah, indeed. But you neglect to state why: the population hates the islamist government to such an extent that the Iranian population would use the internet to give US/Israel targeting coordinates for EVERY Iranian official.
From Parlementarians, right down to half the traffic cops.
The "supreme leader" (wonder if that comes with salami) was famously targeted so successfully because Iranians gave Mossad access to traffic camera footage across Teheran, so they could track officials' movements ... and Iranians did that with full knowledge, even with the intention that that would kill those officials.
The Iranian people hate the islamist/palestinian/terrorist axis to such an extent they'll actively collaborate to murder every last one of them. Which is another big thing the islamists are afraid of: if the population gets organized successfully, half of the IRGC will find themselves hanging from the nearest traffic light.
So you're both correct, they're terrified of their own people, and they're terrified of OSINT. You are, however, trying to spin that as support for the regime, when of course it is the exact opposite, to an extreme extent.
I'm not trying to spin it as support for the regime, there's no part of the thread where I did so. CENTCOM and the State of Israel both deal with the same threat vector, and their response is to use the NSA's SIGINT technology to track, profile and selectively censor their threats. The IRGC lacks the technology to perform that same level of domestic spycraft, so they naturally reach for a blanket blackout (much like what we see in Moscow right now).
There are objectively smart and dumb choices that can be made in this conflict. It's smart to blockade Iran as soon as the Strait closes, it's smart to prefer diplomacy to a taxpayer-funded land invasion. Similarly, I will credit the IRGC with using the blackout to their advantage. It's a tactically potent, symmetrical response that refuses to cede leverage to the BLUFOR coalition. Their cards are being played so well that it's fair to ask whether or not the CCP is just spoonfeeding them American tactics they found through Salt Typhoon.
> Similarly, I will credit the IRGC with using the blackout to their advantage ...
No it's not. It's just doing what they always do: taking hostages and threatening to damage a LOT of people's lives just so they can feel good, feel strong without of course actually being strong, with both themselves and the Iranian population living in misery just to cause problems for the rest of the world. They have made every last friend they have into enemies. Both the Iraqi and Lebanese governments are attacking them now.
Hostages when you have no way out ... is about as smart as a bank robber taking a hostage. It helps until the snipers arrive. Then, a bullet with your name on it gets loaded and no further comment from you is required. Iran's islamists are creating a situation where the entire world has no other choice but to destroy them.
It is beyond stupid. The outcome they are desperate to create would utterly destroy THEM. And in their desperate attempts to so that they're giving everyone who might have chosen to protect them into enemies screaming at the world that they need to be dealt with.
No, the internet blackout is so their populace doesn't rise up against them.
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).
Is that why they did similar blackouts in 2019, 2022, and 2024 too?
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.
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.
Even if you do wholeheartedly believe that, then you'd also be willing to concede that it's also intended to suppress Mossad and CIA operatives working domestically. It's not possible to argue that the only motivation is suppressing domestic backlash.
How did people organize pre-Internet times though?
Through social gatherings that mostly don't exist anymore.
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.
which is the exact same reason China bans Starlink.
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.
Why would you lie about this?
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.
FWIW NordVPN doesn't have Iran, Russia or China as their exit node.
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.
I wonder why BYD is banned in the US. Are we afraid they'll be used to transport people to gatherings?
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.
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.
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.
this
well... so obvious
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.
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.
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.
FYI it’s not an Arab country
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
It definitely ramped up with the invasion. I watched the webcam streams go dark.
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).
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.
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.
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.
How do people communicate now? And why wouldn’t that be compromised?
It’s defensive indeed! It’s defense against the people whom the regime is most afraid of!
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.
Should internet and outside access be cut for people of Gaza and Lebanon too? Aren’t they targeted by Israel as well?
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.
> 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.
The ARMA 3 devs actually almost went to prison for photographing military installations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Except that Iran has been doing it since 2019: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Iran