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90M people. 118 hours of silence. One nation erased from the internet
- ChrisArchitect 9mo agoRelated: What we know about Iran's Internet shutdown https://blog.cloudflare.com/iran-protests-internet-shutdown/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/iran-protests-internet-shutdown/ (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46602066 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46602066) Among a number of other posts previously getting into it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46591974 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46591974 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46542683 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46542683
- michelsedgh 9mo agoAnd countless human rights and freedom activists completely absolutely silent. They chose to be silent about Iran, it feels like iranian blood is worth less than other places apparently.
- stetrain 9mo agoAre you speaking out, protesting, or otherwise taking the actions that you are accusing others of abstaining from?
- marstall 9mo agowhat are you referring to? Amnesty International, to take one example, has a huge banner supporting Iran's protestors on their homepage rn https://www.amnesty.org/en/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/
- godzillabrennus 9mo ago[flagged]
- rplnt 9mo agoIt's as if there are two different actors and only one is an ally that can be held responsible by the government people are actually protesting "to".
- tinfoilhatter 9mo ago[flagged]
- mupuff1234 9mo agoIncoming reports are saying that they killed over 12,000 people in only a few days.
- tibbydudeza 9mo agoMinneapolis is closer to home and it hits different - Iran is some far of place.
- Y-bar 9mo agoYesterday: > A group of Iowa State University students gathered recently, standing in solidarity with the Iranian people and in opposition of the Middle Eastern government. https://eu.amestrib.com/story/news/local/2026/01/12/iowa-state-students-demonstrate-against-islamic-republic-in-iran/88140978007/ https://eu.amestrib.com/story/news/local/2026/01/12/iowa-sta...
- polytely 9mo agobut US universities aren't working together with Iranian universities, that is the difference
- conception 9mo agoWe’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
- volkk 9mo agoI think this gives further evidence that these huge campaigns and marches/protests/street graffiti are very deliberate manipulation by certain groups and a lot of money.
- reactordev 9mo agoPIGs on both sides. Private Interest Groups.
- mullingitover 9mo agoSo the current protests in Iran are driven by foreign intelligence services?
- volkk 9mo agothat wasn't my point at all
- toss1 9mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- disgruntledphd2 9mo agoThat's what the Iranian regime claims.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- RobertoG 9mo agoOn the other hand, there are a lot of people that is suddenly very worried about Iran but had nothing to say about other places. Some, even support the terrible things that are going on, today and for a very long time, in those other places.
- fenwick67 9mo agoIf you're an American, what could protesting Iran possibly accomplish? They are already sanctioned out the wazoo and our government already doesn't like the government there.
- iso1631 9mo ago[flagged]
- School-Cotton 9mo agoIsrael's treatment of Palestinians is completely different from Iran's treatment of Iranians, though I agree both are bad.
- stackskipton 9mo ago>The voices that are silent are the ones that are shouting from the rooftops when Israel does this to Palestinians. Depends on the protester and what they are protesting but many of Israel protests have been against US continuing to support/fund Israel and want US government to do something different. Iran on other hand is US sanctioned and US actively works against it, very different relationship then with Israel.
- zeroonetwothree 9mo agoI don’t doubt that many protesters do hold this view, but looking at the banners that some protesters have it’s clear that it’s not at all universal.
- visageunknown 9mo agoIts obviously not universal. No movement is a monolith. That's a silly expectation to have.
- alex1138 9mo ago[flagged]
- baxtr 9mo agoIt seems as if the the word genocide has no use if it’s your own people your mass killing.
- energy123 9mo agoWhat's happening in Iran is a politicide.
- cyberax 9mo agoWorse. We had an Iranian demonstration in Seattle, and "Free Palestine" protestors came there with megaphones to disrupt it.
- chasd00 9mo agoThat's funny in a morbidly ironic sort of way. what was their rational for countering the Iranian demonstrations? Free Palestine but subjugate Iran doesn't seem rational.
- cyberax 9mo agoIt becomes completely clear when you remember that HAMAS is a subsidiary of the current Iranian government.
- averysmallbird 9mo agoAs someone very vocal on Iran, I find these recriminations shallow and generally intended to be punitive about those positions in those others places. By the same precedent, it opens up Iranian human rights activists to the same endless accusations — when were you vocal on M23, Haiti, Kashmir, Kurds, Muslims in India, etc etc. I don't think it's countless silent organizations, and those organizations or activists are generally not in position to be able to influence the IRI or IRGC. I think you have distinguish between feckless organizations like the ITU, and say, college student campus activists.
- neoromantique 9mo ago>when were you vocal on M23, Haiti, Kashmir, Kurds, Muslims in India... That is the entire point, Gaza protests have been very vocal (and in many cases very misinformed). Human right abuses in Iran are but another example of this blindness.
- RobertoG 9mo agoMisinformed, sure. As it's not obvious what Israel is trying to do in Gaza. You ask for equal reaction, here it goes: I want for Israel the same sanctions that are applied to Iran and Russia. Fair, right?
- tehjoker 9mo agoIt's very obvious what they are trying to accomplish: ethnic cleansing. The idea is to make life so miserable to Palestinians that they will give up their national liberation struggle and venture into the punishing Sinai desert, allowing Israel and Trump to build a riviera and a gas pipeline on the sea. If they can't get them to leave, the partial genocide will escalate into a full blown mass murder campaign.
- mhb 9mo agoSurely the oxymoronic "partial genocide" should reveal how ridiculous it is to invoke this bit of propaganda.
- almosthere 9mo agoBecause that's not what they are - they are communists trying to mix the right ingredients for their next rage cycle.
- anon7000 9mo agoWell, for starters, one person really can’t care about every possible issue, even if they wanted to. So people and groups may get very passionate about one thing that really pulls on the heartstrings, hits close to home, or is more related to their own country’s policies. (For example, those protesting Palestine may protest US’s typically very strong support of Israel.) What am I going to do when I wake up to the news that yet another country under the control of religious fanatics is abusing their people? Demand the US invades them? Go to the streets every single day for every new issue (of which there are countless)? Demand sanctions against their government (already broadly exists)? Fly there myself? (Not sure if possible, and what help would that do?) Who is choosing to be silent about Iran? Lack of knowledge, maybe, but deliberate planning? That would be the fault of media and perhaps the wealthy controlling the media, if it’s happening. Not the everyday person. I guarantee you, next to no one wakes up and decides “hm, I will choose to not talk about X atrocity today.” You’re angry at the wrong people.
- andrepd 9mo agoWhich orgs are you talking about specifically? Don't sling mud in such a vague way. Here's Amnesty's homepage https://www.amnesty.org/en/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/. The UN has already issued statements. What do you mean exactly? Random nobodies on social media?
- michelsedgh 9mo agoAfter 10 days they put those banners up. After enormous pressure from people online and political from USA republicans. They were silent mostly. Also BBC, NYTimes, WPost, they only ran articles after 10 days of continuous killings in Iran were happening.
- tablets 9mo agoThat's just not true though https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqj2llkjv8vo https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqj2llkjv8vo
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- andrepd 9mo agoWhat on earth... Both Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have reported on the escalation of repression in Iran. BBC, NYTimes, WPost, and well, virtually every major media outlet in the World has been reporting on Iran at least since the major escalations around 5-6 January. That's just such a bald-faced set of obvious lies that can be debunked with a 5-second google search... I struggle to see what your aim is in all this.
- imjonse 9mo agoHuman lives have the same value, but does Iran suppress the protesters with the tacit approval or active support of the West? If not who to protest against then? The Ayatollah?
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- fennecbutt 9mo agoWell same thing as gaza, idk why the west mostly supports Israel. Is it because they're more "like us" than gazans? I mean...how about we just not kill each other. Kept the drawn lines, make "settlers" illegal and be done with it. But nah we all tribal monkeys, our species is poisoned by evolution. So we'll never stop taking from each other, killing each other.
- wtcactus 9mo ago> I mean...how about we just not kill each other. Kept the drawn lines, make "settlers" illegal and be done with it. Israel did exactly that on 2015. Then, the Arabs (that’s what they actually are: Arabs from Egypt and Lebanon left behind by their own nations after they tried to destroy Israel in the very next day after the state was formed in 1948) went on to elect a government that specifically had as their campaign banner “the destruction of Israel” and kept sending dozens of rockets against Israel every day.
- epolanski 9mo agoSuch as?
- tim333 9mo agoI think a lot don't really know what to say beyond killing people is bad. I'm quite glad some people don't feel the need to noisy weigh in on situations they don't know much about.
- honeycrispy 9mo agoThey cut the internet and gunned down 12,000 protesters. Absolute tragedy. I've been semi-depressed this week just thinking about it.
- tibbydudeza 9mo agoUnverified though - people are saying more in the range of 2000. PS In Islam they don't do cremation and burial is within a day before next sunset hence the horrible footage of hospitals releasing bodies publicly in the street - it is part of their faith and even the regime respects it.
- energy123 9mo agoIranian officials are saying 2000, so that's the lower bound.
- nicce 9mo agoHrana says. It is US based.
- Aryezz 9mo agoAround 2,000 people were killed in Iran protests, an Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday, blaming "terrorists" for the deaths of civilians and security personnel. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/about-2000-killed-iran-protests-official-says-2026-01-13/ https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/about-2000-killed-... A senior Iranian health ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said about 3,000 people had been killed across the country but sought to shift the blame to “terrorists” fomenting unrest. The figure included hundreds of security officers, he said. Another government official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he had seen an internal report that referred to at least 3,000 dead, and added that the toll could climb. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/world/middleeast/iran-protester-deaths.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/world/middleeast/iran-pro...
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 9mo ago
- mamonster 9mo agoBeing able to completely turn off the Internet in your country seems to be a non-negotiable capability to develop for any non-democratic state. I think a lot of them took a look at how Twitter and Facebook were used for organising during the Arab spring and decided that it was by far the most dangerous non-military threat. Still wonder how exactly they are interdicting Starlink, I've seen rumors that they are using Russian EW systems but those same systems are not so effective jamming Starlink-guided drones on the frontlines.
- anon7000 9mo agoFrankly, we need to get to a place where it is impossible to do shut down the internet in a country like this. P2P and distributed networks might see a resurgence here
- toomuchtodo 9mo agoAny RF comms can be jammed, you will need ground to satellite laser communications to accomplish this (or you were close enough to a terrestrial free space optics ground station outside of nation state borders a satellite isn't required). https://spacenews.com/aircraft-links-with-satellite-using-laser-terminals-in-interoperability-test/ https://spacenews.com/aircraft-links-with-satellite-using-la... https://event.dlr.de/en/hm2025/tesat-scot80/ https://event.dlr.de/en/hm2025/tesat-scot80/ https://www.tesat.de/products https://www.tesat.de/products
- SJC_Hacker 9mo agoPlanes can be shot down
- toomuchtodo 9mo agoPlane was the test bed for the military application in my citation, the ground station could be ground or roof mounted and camouflaged. As it would emit no RF, you would have to know where to look for it to find it (unlike say, StarLink ground terminals, which are detectable). If you emit RF in a contested environment as a civilian, you can be found using multilateration (for this context, I assume if you have military comms equipment, you have access to exotic RF that will make this difficult similar to have quick and saturn). SDR networks on the public internet enable this today, as long as there are enough receivers online in an area and you know what you're looking for, so I don't think it's beyond the grasp of nation state actors. TDOA Transmitter Localization with RTL-SDRs - https://panoradio-sdr.de/tdoa-transmitter-localization-with-rtl-sdrs/ https://panoradio-sdr.de/tdoa-transmitter-localization-with-... - July 17th, 2017
- mrexcess 9mo ago[flagged]
- kome 9mo agoabsolutely, the capacity of the US and their useless european minions to side with evil while cloaking geopolitical violence in the language of human rights is not hypocrisy by accident but policy by design, activated selectively when victims are convenient and ignored when perpetrators are allies. i am very sad for iranian protesters, but the west does not need to instrumentalize their suffering.
- dgrin91 9mo agoSeems it got hugged to death.
- uyzstvqs 9mo agohttps://archive.is/SNMH5 https://archive.is/SNMH5
- kumarski 9mo agoI do find it odd that ~80% of Americans can't point out Iran on a map.
- arjie 9mo agoIllinois has 12 m people and a GDP over $1 trillion. I doubt most foreigners could place it on a map. There is no significant difference that it is part of a federation and Iran is not. People oversell these kind of Instagram sound-bites. It's really not a big deal. I'd suspect most Americans have a relationship with far-off suffering the same as me: it's sad and I think we should contribute to alleviating it, but if I encounter sufficient sanctimony about it I'd rather go live my life.
- RobertoG 9mo agoThe problem is: that could be the relation that most Americans have with Iran, but, unfortunately, it's not the relation that USA has with Iran.
- epolanski 9mo agoNo offense but you can't compare a us state to one of the most important and ancient countries on the planet.
- don_esteban 9mo agoNow, compare the cultural history of Illinois and Iran/Persia. And yes, being a part of federation does make a lot of difference. How many China provinces can you name? (Not even asking you to point them on the map).
- niemandhier 9mo agoThe parent comment is provocative and impolite, so you are right to refute it. On the other hand, I’d like to point out that few countries have foreign policies as obsessed with Illinois as the US government is with Iran. The average person probably also has no political opinion on Illinois or their governments policy with respect to Illinois, something which I would assume to be different with respect to Iran in the US.
- armchairhacker 9mo agoIs there anything I, a layman, can do to support the Iranian protestors?
- ebbi 9mo agoWhich ones? The ones protesting for a regime change in support of US/Israel intervention? Or the ones that are counter-protesting that know foreign intervention will be a net negative for their country?
- concinds 9mo agoOf all the dictatorships you might want to be an apologist for, I can't think of a shittier and less inspiring one than this one, other than North Korea.
- ebbi 9mo agoVery presumptuous of you. OP asked what a layman could do to help the protestors, and I asked which protestors he wants to support. I despise the Iranian government lol. Stop attributing intent where there isn't.
- throwaway37426 9mo ago> I despise the Iranian government lol. This must be satire.
- cromka 9mo ago> The ones protesting for a regime change in support of US/Israel intervention? So the anti-government protestors all protest for both? Like it's implied?
- ebbi 9mo agoThe difference is one set of protestors support US/Israel intervention for regime change. The other group of protestors are protesting against this. There is a segment within this group that are ardently pro-Regime. The other segment (which I think is the majority of the group, and Iran, but I have no evidence and so this is purely anecdotal based on my various discussions with Iranians) is that they do want regime change, but not from any outside influence - they would ideally like an organic democratic process that Iranian citizens control.
- perihelions 9mo agoThis reads like a submarine ad for some kind of analytics startup. I'm confused why this post is HN's #1, ahead of numerous other sources expositing the same story; it isn't interestingly different.
- yodon 9mo agoClearly other HN readers consider news of as many as 12,000 people possibly having been killed by their government to be important, and consider the discussion happening about it on this page to be interesting to them.
- moontear 9mo agoThe criticism was not the news itself but this particular source compared to other available sources of the same news.
- GordonS 9mo agoThat 12,000 number is utter make believe - an X account (you can guess who backs it) make this claim, got boosted and got over 1M views... and then they deleted the post. But the damage is done, of course.
- andrepd 9mo agoEven sources in the Iranian security forces say 2000, which is nothing to scoff at.
- Aloisius 9mo agoThe 12,000 number comes from Iran International's Editorial Board, not some random twitter user: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202601130145 https://www.iranintl.com/en/202601130145
- js4ever 9mo agoAbsolutely all your comments are shilling for Iranian dictatorship. Are you paid by Iran? Sorry I have a bad news for you, you will probably never receive the next paycheck since IRCG and terrorist mullahs regime is probably falling in the next weeks
- stevetron 9mo agoThe Year of Living Dangerously. The Serpent and the Rainbow.
- Huntsecker 9mo agoThink what's going on in Iran is very sad, but from an outsider America has become one mouthpiece, rarely do I see dissenting voices in the media, that is its always Iran/China bad and at the same time they Kidnap a foreign leader and its all wow look how great we are. does feel its back to might is right, and the last 80 years of relative peaceful times is sunsetting. you may ask what has the above goto do with a tech article on Iran blocking the internet, its basically just how its written feels alot like propaganda (not saying the content is invalid) that is, oh the indignity of not having internet for 118 hours, personally didn't have it for much of my childhood, the above is not to diminish the other sad loss of life which is obviously terrible just feels like even tech articles have become partisan.
- nailer 9mo ago> the indignity of not having internet for 118 hours ...during mass violence against the population.
- mancerayder 9mo agoIran controls a string of proxies in Lebanon, Yemen and other places. Are you sure you're not forgetting that piece? When you write that we had 80 years of relatively peaceful times, you're glossing over that fact.
- Lamad1234 9mo ago[dead]
- dpe82 9mo agoWe haven't had a major conflict in 80 years. Little skirmishes all over the place, sure, but we've forgotten that significant wars between major powers used to be both terrible for everyone involved and also common. Our grandparents after WW2 decided to go a different path and created a largely rules- and trade- based international order that has largely kept the peace. We don't realize how good we've had it.
- mlsu 9mo agoSixty million people died in WW2. Sixty million.
- racktash 9mo agoI hope to live long enough to see a free Iran -- or at least something better than the current, rotten regime.
- RobertoG 9mo agoSame feelings for Saudi Arabia, I hope.
- falaki 9mo agoThere are a lot of Iranian-Americans in Silicon valley, and the broader tech. These people have family and relatives in Iran and not being able to contact has been extremely hard on them. If you have an Iranian colleague, please understand that they may not be able to perform and work as their usual. Hopefully this collective nightmare will end.
- moontear 9mo agoSo if this happens, what are your remedies if any? I guess a VPN wouldn’t help since there are no routes? Something like Starlink would work or would there be a problem with ground stations not having internet?
- nurettin 9mo agoSatellites don't work because iran gov. is broadcasting gibberish causing satellite connections to drop.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- nogridbag 9mo agoI had this same question recently. There's mesh networks like meshcore. But you would be limited to just sending text messages to other users. I would imagine the government would be able to easily identify and destroy such a network as well.
- TheGuyWhoCodes 9mo ago[flagged]
- epolanski 9mo agoCan you make examples?
- rationalfaith 9mo ago[dead]
- foragerdev 9mo agoI hate it Americans/Western advocating democracy, human rights for Iran (Which I believe is their right if the demand so). But let me remind you, Pakistan is facing this since 2022, when an elected PM was removed by an American regime change operation on behalf of US by Pakistan Army. Since 2022, Pakistanis been protesting, largest political party was banned from elections, largest political party was dismantled by Pakistan Army, journalists were abducted, banned, and killed, the most famous leader was shoot, eventually locked up. In February 2024 Pakistan Army stolen election, when Pakistan army shut down internet, and keep x.com banned for 1.5 years, thousands of common Pakistanis was abducted, tortured, their homes broken into, killed during protests. Literally no one spoke. EU champion of human rights and democracy did not release Pakistan election 2024 report for 1.5 year. US is silent because Pakistan army general's serve their motives, so they do not have any problem with internet shut down, human right violations, democracy. Stop this hypocrisy. Democracy and human rights become a thing when their interests are not served, or some dictators serve them then EU/US do not care. I am not complaining but I am telling what it is.
- clydethefrog 9mo agoSee also the protests in Serbia [1] led by university students, that have been also mostly ignored by both the EU and the USA. The EU commented "they will not accept or support a violent change of power in Serbia", and the USA claimed they do not support "those who undermine the rule of law or who forcefully take over government buildings." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%93present_Serbian_anti-corruption_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%93present_Serbian_a...
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- millipede 9mo agoEvents like this show that the Internet is pretty heavily centralized. The original DARPA Internet was supposed to be resilient to stuff like this, but it's clear that the old Internet, and the new Internet, are not the same. We as Internet engineers really need to be better here, and design hardware and software to be ready to handle any errors, even unlikely ones like a state actor breaking things. It's like installing smoke alarms; no one thinks they need them until they do.
- inkysigma 9mo agoWasn't the original ARPANET entirely owned and controlled by the US government? I think it might've been resilient against attacks from people who didn't own the network but I would also be surprised to learn the US government couldn't shut it down if it wanted.
- mrguyorama 9mo agoThere is no tech solution ever possible to "The guys with guns showed up", and people in tech continuing to insist that they must maintain political apathy and solve real problems only as long as you can do it with code is literally part of the problem. "Tech used to be a place without politics" is especially heinous. The entire time you insisted on eschewing politics, your boss sure as fuck wasn't.
- epsters 9mo agoWar Duration Population Deaths Iraq war 2003-2017-present 25 million (2005) 500 - 1 million Syrian war 2012-2025-present 21 million (2012) 500 - 600,000 Libyan war 2011-2021-present 6.5 million (2010) 50 - 100k This is looking like its going to be another Syria/Libya-style foreign-intervention if Israel gets its way (which seems to be the case). Which means multiple proxy factions backed by various regional and global powers in a grand chessboard. The opposition already seems to be disjointed. To add to the mess, The Israelis seem to be backing the son of the late Shah to install as a tinpot dictator and Europe/Washington and the western media are going along with it dutifully. The Kurdish rioters and sleeper cells already seem to be firing their weapons and may at some point decide to make a break for it. Which risks destabilising Iraq and Syria (again) and likely draw involvement from those countries. Which will likely in turn , draw in the Turks and Gulf monarchs. By which point there is a good chance of this devolving into a conflict divided along ethnic and sectarian lines with a possible resurgence of ISIS and Al Qaeeda. The Israelis and their western-backers seem quite content with all this. The Israelis will likely seek to maximize and prolong the chaos in keeping with the Yinon plan to break apart Iran (along with Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Somalia) so they can establish themselves as a regional hegemon. "90 million" is a good number to keep in mind because going by the numbers and history, such a war would at minimum last 10 years and cost a million lives and trigger another even larger refugee crisis. As is now custom, it looks like the common people of the region will bear the brunt of the impact with Europe suffering the secondary fallout while America foots the bill and Israel reaps the rewards. I say all this because i see lot of people cheering this on and it is important for them to know what exactly they are cheering for. We saw all this happen over and over in Iraq, in Syria, in Libya, in Palestine, in Yemen, in Somalia, in Sudan. Are we going to pretends it going to turn out different this time? That this time it really is about freedom and democracy and humanitarianism?
- nojvek 9mo agoIran, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Libya, Yemen. It's kind of wild how the middle east has been at some kind of war with each other for more than half a century, possibly longer. Meanwhile Europe aggressively killed each other during WWI and WWII and then went into a peaceful union with a free trading bloc. Will there ever be a Middle-east union unification like EU in our lifetime?
- bunbun69 9mo ago“Then came the order. Not a shutdown—something worse. The routers didn't go silent. They screamed.” This is AI slop
- throwaway_s3434 9mo agoThe reaction of muslims when comparing between the events of Palestine and Iran is chilling to watch. No matter the education, economic status or how they appear externally muslims unity is so strong internally when it comes to religion. Since the revolution in Iran is anti relgion they are turning a blind eye. How come no one even acknowledges. Its impossible not to wonder what will become of any country once muslims become majority. Do all the negative voting, but please think and reply what solution you got.