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Iranian protesters skirting Islamic government’s tech clampdown to continue their fight for freedom

Jan 6, 2018 5:54 am By Robert Spencer

The desire for freedom can never be entirely extinguished from the human heart.

“How Iranian protesters are skirting the government’s tech clampdown to continue their fight,” by Hollie McKay, Fox News, January 5, 2018:

Protesters have taken to the streets in Iran, demonstrating against the country’s clerical regime. As many participants are being arrested, and even killed, there is a growing call of appreciation and more support from the Trump administration.

While the already repressive Iranian government works to further shut down social media that helps fuel communications among thousands of protestors, the predominantly young, college-aged crowds in the street are scrambling to stay ahead with a variety of counter-censorship maneuvers.

“Iranians are used to changing. Remember we were the first ones using Twitter for political purposes in the Green Revolution in 2009, when Twitter was still largely unknown,” one activist, Ali, told Fox News. “Then it was blocked. Then Facebook came and then it was blocked. Now Instagram and Telegram.”

Iranian officials are blocking access by essentially building a “massive firewall,” according to Dave Chronister, managing partner of Parameter Security and an “ethical hacker” who has worked with the U.S government. But access hasn’t been completely cut – leaving the protesters room to maneuver.

“The Iranian government is blocking access to certain IP ranges altogether (such as news sites) and at the same time they are also allowing certain sites to be accessed,” said Chronister. “But they are using content filtering to block what they consider to be risky or subversive, for example Twitter hashtags. So the Iranian activists are using different ‘tunneling’ methods to hide their traffic through encryption and therefore bypass government restrictions – for instance, they use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).”

The VPN encrypts web traffic, so it obscures information that makes it harder for Iran’s security apparatus to catch or block.

One activist in Tehran told Fox News he has downloaded about 10 VPNs, and just one is working. While VPNs can be quickly shut down when detected, activists can just as quickly scramble to find more. Some have also since turned to other platforms such as the anonymity network Tor, which allows users to conceal their location.

But it remains a dangerous game.

“Iranian activists are using a ton of proxies to hide their true identities. A proxy is basically an outside IP address that masks your true one, so if an Iranian citizen uses a proxy to access the internet, he or she will appear to Iranian authorities to be coming from another country like Australia or Hong Kong,” said Jeff Bardin, CIO of Treadstone 71 and a former Air Force intelligence operative.

“This makes it difficult for the Iranian government to block the connection without closing off the internet completely. But using a proxy doesn’t mean you are completely safe, the Iranian government has the ability to shut them down and find out who is using them.”

Should that shut-down happen – which is of increasing concern since the Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said Wednesday that “when cyberspace was controlled, we saw a decrease in sedition,” the activists have a backup plan.

“Every day we know at 5pm to gather in identified places: the main square in every city and the four main squares in Tehran,” one protest leader in Tehran told Fox News in a telephone interview on Thursday.

Protesters suffered a setback when access to the encrypted phone messaging app Telegram was shut down last weekend. The app is hugely popular in Iran, given there are more than 40 million registered accounts there. Dubai-based Telegram founder Pavel Durvov claimed his app was blocked after he refused to adhere to the regime’s demands to shut down certain channels used by “peaceful protesters.”…

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Filed Under: Featured, Internet jihad, Iran Tagged With: Virtual Private Network


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Comments

  1. mike9a says

    Jan 6, 2018 at 7:54 am

    Time to open a few of our communication satellites till mullah’ regime implodes.

  2. Ziba Delavar says

    Jan 6, 2018 at 8:05 am

  3. Ziba Delavar says

    Jan 6, 2018 at 8:15 am

    The above video is the most truthful analysis of the ongoing protests in Iran.

    • Shocksanja says

      Jan 7, 2018 at 11:34 am

      Thank you for sharing!

  4. CRUSADER says

    Jan 6, 2018 at 12:21 pm

    Just glad here in America that Satellite TV brings NFL as a distraction from all the bad news….

    N-Fidel-League

    Wildcard Games Weekend….

    • Lydia Church says

      Jan 6, 2018 at 11:42 pm

      Nothing like a little ‘bread and circus’ to numb what brain cells they have left, mind numbing sports, celebrity news, and pop culture to put the masses’ minds to sleep for good…. so the globalists can move on with their agendas undeterred…. never mind the real news, you won’t be needing that from now on… only the Orwell News Network will be broadcast now….. we got rid of all of that ‘fake’ news… now the social media ‘hate speech’ is the target… little by little their yellow brick road to tyranny is being laid. While the people were sleeping.

      I’m glad they are not sleeping in Iran, I wish them all the victory!

  5. Guy Forester says

    Jan 6, 2018 at 5:23 pm

    In fact, even on Fox and Debka, I am seeing next to nothing about the ongoing protests.

    More news about this needs to go out. The Free World needs to stand behind these people.

    How about using the CIA to get HAM radios and satellite phones to Iran? Nah, too many BHO holdovers would scuttle this.

    • UNCLE VLADDI says

      Jan 8, 2018 at 12:05 am

      Iran was supposed to be the military-industrial complex’s new boogeyman.

      If Iran frees itself to become non-islamic and democratic, only NK is left!

  6. Guy Forester says

    Jan 6, 2018 at 5:24 pm

    Where are the regular Iranian armed forces? Still confined to bases guarded by the basij and IRGC?

  7. Garfield says

    Jan 7, 2018 at 12:41 am

    Women in Iran want to be FREE from ugly repressive hijab headbags. Meanwhile the american leftist women promote them as symbols of….what? Will women here STOP bowing and scraping before the idea of the hijab now? It represents oppression ,FGM, and child marriage. Its stupid, ugly and insane. No normal woman wants her head wrapped in a cloth bag all the time!!! No normal man wants to look at a woman wrapped in a frikin BAG all the time!
    I don’t want to see little girls wearing headbags. The suggestion is a six year old is a target to rape if she doesn’t cover her hair. Get it? Islam is moronic barbaric garbage from hell.

  8. gravenimage says

    Jan 7, 2018 at 12:44 am

    Iranian protesters skirting Islamic government’s tech clampdown to continue their fight for freedom
    ………………….

    Excellent news!

  9. Vann Boseman says

    Jan 7, 2018 at 6:42 am

    Ideas have consequences. To the extent that the Iranian government succeeds in eliminating freedom of the press, there will be a negative outcome concerning the expression of what people in that country will live for, and are willing to die for whether they are part of the government or part of those protesting it.

    It is hard if not impossible to know what happens during any war. At least two groups are fighting each other and human nature being what it is, openness and honesty of the leaders is not typically held to be a value worth pursuing. I applaud the abilities and efforts of the protesters to outmaneuver the tech clampdown imposed by the government.

    I like the Azar Majedi video. I can imagine from what knowledge I have of Iran that it could be authentic and that her analyses and observations of the current situation could be completely accurate. There is a huge gulf between what sort of government she believes should be in Iran and the end goals that she wishes for the people of Iran. Still, though things can always be worse, I cannot help thinking that toppling the current government in Iran would lead to a better government for Iranians. The word “better” here is perhaps subjective, but it is hard to imagine most people in Iran prefer their present government to virtually any other sort of government.

  10. Edward Cline says

    Jan 7, 2018 at 8:32 am

    How about calling the Iranians “Persians.” I can no longer think of them as “Iranians.” Since I read that piece by a woman who wrote that Islam was imposed on Persia by Arabs, I can’t think of Persia as “Iran.” Islam was imported and imposed on Persians who knew freedom (under the Shah).

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