5 ms·

> Government enacted shut down due to protests Not just protests, it's to prevent foreign interference (like CIA) from fueling civil unrest and spreading AI de

> Government enacted shut down due to protests Not just protests, it's to prevent foreign interference (like CIA) from fueling civil unrest and spreading AI deepfakes, as seen in Myanmar and Brazil https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-facebooks-systems-promoted-violence-against-rohingya-meta-owes-reparations-new-report/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-faceb...

daedrdev 9mo ago
Wow its so nice this excuse just happens to shut down the internet when an astronomically unpopular regime faces vast protests after years of economic and political mismanagement
- aprilthird2021 9mo ago
  Internet shut downs are really common in authoritarian countries. India used to shut the Internet down in Kashmir every other day, and in random states for random reasons some as seemingly trivial as high school students taking their board exams
  - FilosofumRex 9mo ago
    [flagged]
  - helloaltalt 9mo ago
    Kashmir has such a bloody history with its kashmiri pandits and wars and even recent events that really shock its nation. Kashmir has been the most unstable part of India and Article 370 although with flaws wanted to give Kashmir the stability it deserves but Kashmir had even its own flags and state etc. and thats why it got really messy and why the internet used to be shut down Kashmir still requires people to specifically get a sim just for Kashmir. But you can get any large carrier to do such. There are even ways of generating e-sim and such, but there is genuinely lots of concerns and complaints in doing so and its very time consuming in a way but internet access has stabilized for the most part, you just require a special sim verification again to do such or perhaps buying a new sim specifically for kashmir but you can port the number as well but as I said, its really time consuming but possible to even do this without entering kashmir itself
- anthem2025 9mo ago
  [dead]
- ithkuil 9mo ago
  Apparently a lot of people in the west too are assuming that these protests are fueled by the west. At least that's the most likely explanation for why so many left leaning youth are not supporting Iranians while supporting Palestine. Apparently the fight is not about freedom but about (perceived) whiteness vs non-whiteness
  - irusensei 9mo ago
    These people treat geopolitics as if they are watching an avengers movie.
  - logicchains 9mo ago
    >Apparently the fight is not about freedom but about (perceived) whiteness vs non-whiteness But the Iranians are white. The name Iran is literally derived from "Aryan".
    - ithkuil 9mo ago
      Yeah of course none of this makes sense. And yet it all has real world consequences. It's all incredibly partisan. If one just manages to take a step back and watch this dynamic from outside it all seems so weird: the islamist Iran backs Hamas, Hamas are Palestinians, Palestinians are victimized by Jews, Jews have money, capitalists have money, america is capitalist, america is imperialist, ergo .... Islamist Iran is against capitalist imperialism. The protests are against islamist Iran ergo they are against the fight against capitalist imperialism and thus they don't deserve solidarity, or something like this. I would really love to hear from somebody who is not supporting the Iran protests to honestly tell me if I misrepresented their position and in which way
    - Aloisius 9mo ago
      I believe that was the point they were making. While I don't think they're right that Iran is ignored because Iranian protesters and the Iranian government are both perceived as white by Americans (or both non-white, depending on the person), it's undeniable that they use the perceived non-whiteness of Palestinians and perceived whiteness of Israelis as rhetorical ammunition. This rhetorical device is a rather effective as Americans have a tendency to view everything through their own lens of "race"/color so casting the conflict as white people oppressing non-white people because they are non-white is a powerful argument that is easily understood by Americans. That said, personally, I think Iran is ignored more because Palestine is sucking all the air out of the room than anything else, especially with all the graphic videos/photos. Sudan on the other hand... there's really no excuse for ignoring that.
perching_aix 9mo ago
I gave this a skim and a keyword search. Note that I'm not familiar with the matter. The article claims that the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar that kicked off in 2017 has been substantively fueled by Facebook propaganda efforts, with strong links to Myanmar's own "security forces" (military). > it's to prevent foreign interference (like CIA) from fueling civil unrest and spreading AI deepfakes, as seen in Myanmar and Brazil In contrast then, you seem to allege that it was actually a foreign interference campaign by the CIA? Or am I misunderstanding what you're proposing? Because if I'm not, I fail to see how what you linked supports that at all. Even your mention of deepfakes seems very questionable, as those haven't been a thing until late 2017, by which point this cleansing effort was already long underway. I further see that the US has formally condemned these events, although of course that does not rule out involvement.
- WhereIsTheTruth 9mo ago
  CIA and Amnesty's claims aside, focus on how social media fuels civil unrest, the real concern is foreign interference, Iran has been a target for a very long time The US wants a regime change, that's a fact, Trump has been very vocal on the matter, and the NSA has the tools to do what ever it pleases on the internet (e.g., PRISM)
  - perching_aix 9mo ago
    People can focus on a lot of things and make any arbitrary narrative emerge. My problem is exactly that I do not find this angle compelling so far, especially in light of the to-me-obvious alternative. You started off by listing a bunch of things that did not pass my smell test (and you have now walked back on), then followed it up by what's essentially a scattershot of vague gesturings. Why would I focus on what you tell me to? Not only is any of these not compelling, I do not find you a reliable narrator so far at all.
    - deleted 9mo ago
      [deleted]
  - bawolff 9mo ago
breppp 9mo ago
or alternatively to shutdown information flowing out just before the killing begins https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2020/11/iran-internet-deliberately-shut-down-during-november-2019-killings-new-investigation/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2020/11/iran...
bawolff 9mo ago
Pretty sure the CIA is perfectly capable of doing that without the internet. If anything its easier to spread rumours without the internet to let people compare notes

daedrdev 9mo ago

Wow its so nice this excuse just happens to shut down the internet when an astronomically unpopular regime faces vast protests after years of economic and political mismanagement

aprilthird2021 9mo ago
Internet shut downs are really common in authoritarian countries. India used to shut the Internet down in Kashmir every other day, and in random states for random reasons some as seemingly trivial as high school students taking their board exams
- FilosofumRex 9mo ago
  [flagged]
- helloaltalt 9mo ago
  Kashmir has such a bloody history with its kashmiri pandits and wars and even recent events that really shock its nation. Kashmir has been the most unstable part of India and Article 370 although with flaws wanted to give Kashmir the stability it deserves but Kashmir had even its own flags and state etc. and thats why it got really messy and why the internet used to be shut down Kashmir still requires people to specifically get a sim just for Kashmir. But you can get any large carrier to do such. There are even ways of generating e-sim and such, but there is genuinely lots of concerns and complaints in doing so and its very time consuming in a way but internet access has stabilized for the most part, you just require a special sim verification again to do such or perhaps buying a new sim specifically for kashmir but you can port the number as well but as I said, its really time consuming but possible to even do this without entering kashmir itself
anthem2025 9mo ago
[dead]
ithkuil 9mo ago
Apparently a lot of people in the west too are assuming that these protests are fueled by the west. At least that's the most likely explanation for why so many left leaning youth are not supporting Iranians while supporting Palestine. Apparently the fight is not about freedom but about (perceived) whiteness vs non-whiteness
- irusensei 9mo ago
  These people treat geopolitics as if they are watching an avengers movie.
- logicchains 9mo ago
  >Apparently the fight is not about freedom but about (perceived) whiteness vs non-whiteness But the Iranians are white. The name Iran is literally derived from "Aryan".
  - ithkuil 9mo ago
    Yeah of course none of this makes sense. And yet it all has real world consequences. It's all incredibly partisan. If one just manages to take a step back and watch this dynamic from outside it all seems so weird: the islamist Iran backs Hamas, Hamas are Palestinians, Palestinians are victimized by Jews, Jews have money, capitalists have money, america is capitalist, america is imperialist, ergo .... Islamist Iran is against capitalist imperialism. The protests are against islamist Iran ergo they are against the fight against capitalist imperialism and thus they don't deserve solidarity, or something like this. I would really love to hear from somebody who is not supporting the Iran protests to honestly tell me if I misrepresented their position and in which way
  - Aloisius 9mo ago
    I believe that was the point they were making. While I don't think they're right that Iran is ignored because Iranian protesters and the Iranian government are both perceived as white by Americans (or both non-white, depending on the person), it's undeniable that they use the perceived non-whiteness of Palestinians and perceived whiteness of Israelis as rhetorical ammunition. This rhetorical device is a rather effective as Americans have a tendency to view everything through their own lens of "race"/color so casting the conflict as white people oppressing non-white people because they are non-white is a powerful argument that is easily understood by Americans. That said, personally, I think Iran is ignored more because Palestine is sucking all the air out of the room than anything else, especially with all the graphic videos/photos. Sudan on the other hand... there's really no excuse for ignoring that.

perching_aix 9mo ago

I gave this a skim and a keyword search. Note that I'm not familiar with the matter. The article claims that the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar that kicked off in 2017 has been substantively fueled by Facebook propaganda efforts, with strong links to Myanmar's own "security forces" (military). > it's to prevent foreign interference (like CIA) from fueling civil unrest and spreading AI deepfakes, as seen in Myanmar and Brazil In contrast then, you seem to allege that it was actually a foreign interference campaign by the CIA? Or am I misunderstanding what you're proposing? Because if I'm not, I fail to see how what you linked supports that at all. Even your mention of deepfakes seems very questionable, as those haven't been a thing until late 2017, by which point this cleansing effort was already long underway. I further see that the US has formally condemned these events, although of course that does not rule out involvement.

WhereIsTheTruth 9mo ago
CIA and Amnesty's claims aside, focus on how social media fuels civil unrest, the real concern is foreign interference, Iran has been a target for a very long time The US wants a regime change, that's a fact, Trump has been very vocal on the matter, and the NSA has the tools to do what ever it pleases on the internet (e.g., PRISM)
- perching_aix 9mo ago
  People can focus on a lot of things and make any arbitrary narrative emerge. My problem is exactly that I do not find this angle compelling so far, especially in light of the to-me-obvious alternative. You started off by listing a bunch of things that did not pass my smell test (and you have now walked back on), then followed it up by what's essentially a scattershot of vague gesturings. Why would I focus on what you tell me to? Not only is any of these not compelling, I do not find you a reliable narrator so far at all.
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
- bawolff 9mo ago

breppp 9mo ago

or alternatively to shutdown information flowing out just before the killing begins https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2020/11/iran-internet-deliberately-shut-down-during-november-2019-killings-new-investigation/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2020/11/iran...

bawolff 9mo ago

Pretty sure the CIA is perfectly capable of doing that without the internet. If anything its easier to spread rumours without the internet to let people compare notes