* * * In wake of mass protests, Iran cuts off cell phones, YouTube, Facebook

[nimue77]

Turmoil grips Iran as opposition candidate Mousavi arrested

Iran is in turmoil and the country’s political scene is undergoing moment-by-moment changes following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory in yesterday’s presidential elections, with evidence growing of a brutal government crackdown on supporters of reformist opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Reports from several news sources indicate that Mousavi himself has been placed under arrest; according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a moderate voice in Iranian politics, “resigned from all of his official positions in protest against the results of the election.”
“I feel like I went to sleep in one country and woke up in another,” says Lindsay Hilson, a reporter for Britain’s Channel 4 News.
According to eyewitness reports from Channel 4 News and other sources on the ground, riot police have been beating Mousavi supporters in the streets — a jarring turnaround from the past week, when a new political openness seemed to flourish in Teheran as Mousavi and Ahmadinejad supporters took to the streets and expressed opinions openly in a way not seen in Iran since before the Islamic Revolution.
Today, that brief period of “Iranian glasnost” appears to have been fleeting.
From the UK’s Guardian:

Tonight riot police in Tehran faced thousands of angry demonstrators shouting “death to dictatorship” amid shock and confusion after the official result backed Ahmadinejad’s claim to have won, made barely an hour after the polls closed on Friday night.
The moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who had been widely expected to beat the controversial incumbent if there was a high turnout - or at least do well enough to trigger a second round - insisted he was the victor and appealed against the result to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. “I personally strongly protest the many obvious violations and I’m warning I will not surrender to this dangerous charade,” said Mousavi, a former prime minister. “The result will jeopardise the pillars of the Islamic republic and establish tyranny.”
​

There were few independent opinion polls available in Iran prior to the election, but observers said that support for the two main rivals seemed roughly equal throughout the country overall — making Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory, with 62 percent of the vote versus Mousavi’s 34 percent — seem implausible. Even in Mousavi’s hometown, official results show Ahmadinejad winning with 80 percent of the vote.
The following video is from Britain’s Channel 4 News, aired June 13, 2009:

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[punter]

Wow! Did Ahmadinejad hire Karl Rove?

 

[nimue77]

The main mobile telephone network in Iran was cut in the capital Tehran Saturday evening while popular Internet websites Facebook and YouTube also appeared to be blocked, correspondents said. The communication cuts came after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a landslide re-election victory, sparking rioting in the streets by opposition supporters who claimed the result had been rigged.
The mobile phone network stopped working at 10:00 pm (1730 GMT), just before Ahmadinejad went on television to declare the election a “great victory” and even as baton-wielding police were clashing with protestors in the streets of Tehran, according to witnesses.
Iran has two national networks run by state-owned MCI (Telecommunication Company of Iran) and the private firm Irancell.
Several Iran-based users logging on via different Internet service providers, meanwhile, said they could reach neither Facebook nor YouTube — the two websites used effectively by young supporters of Ahmadinejad’s moderate rival Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Mousavi complained bitterly on Saturday against “vote rigging” in the election, unleashing violent clashes between his supporters and anti-riot police.
Scores of users started posting pictures and videos of the protests on both sites shortly after they broke out in Tehran’s streets.
Iranian authorities banned the popular social networking website Facebook on May 23 reportedly to prevent Mousavi supporters from using it for his presidential campaign prior to Friday’s poll.
Access was restored after a few days.
About 60 percent of Iran’s 70-million population is under 30 years old and the country, which applies strict monitoring of cyber material, has some 20 million web users.
Several pro-Mousavi news websites have also been blocked in the past two days including two popular ones, Aftab News and Shahab News, which are regarded as close to Iran’s top arbitration body, the Expediency Council.
The Council is headed by influential former president and Mousavi-backer, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was the subject of mudslinging in the presidential campaign after Ahmadinejad accused his sons of receiving financial privileges in the past.

 

[SoonerNation]

This is not good....I definitely see some sort of dictatorship coming soon in Iran...this will be ugly

 

[ScottL]

This should be merged with Nimue's 'Turmoil' thread. Iran is a hot topic now. But we should minimize the threads to get a better flow of discussion.

 

[barman]

Agreed....NIMUE, hope you don't mind my merging those two threads.

Both have the sub-title in bold within the first post so as to distinguish the separate events

 

[barman]

I'm surprised (and somewhat pleased) to read that Iran's population of 70m has an estimated 20m internet users.

With that many, government attempts to shut down access to the WWW will inevitably be countered in rather short order by the more technically savvy and those folks will spread the means like wildfire through the country at large.

 

[ScottL]

Somewhat off topic but related to Bar's post the Chinese gov't is demanding American PC makers build computers with software preinstalled to restrict internet content. Since China is a big customer they will cave. I'm sure the supreme dicktator of Iran and his frothing contingent will employ this same tactic to restrict internet access there as well.

 

[nimue77]

What is software installed on computers going to stop? What's going to stop people from uninstalling said software?

Somewhat off topic but related to Bar's post the Chinese gov't is demanding American PC makers build computers with software preinstalled to restrict internet content. Since China is a big customer they will cave. I'm sure the supreme dicktator of Iran and his frothing contingent will employ this same tactic to restrict internet access there as well.

 

[ScottL]

Here ya go Nimue:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-tue-greising-china-jun09,0,7552020.column

 

[barman]

Good post, Scott.

From this news we can immediately make two forecasts that will be much more sure than my Orlando NBAFinals forecast

1) Tech savvy users will quickly learn how to override/bypass/uninstall any such obstacle, and

2) PCs without such installed obstacles will cost about 50% more to Chinese users who obtain them from non-traditional outlets.

 

[ScottL]

I don't think it will be that easy Bar. The Chinese gov't is like the Iranian gov't minus the religious fervor to rule the world. But the boot on the population's neck restricts airflow just the same.

On the main music site I trade on, the guys from China always post, "Can you upload that on another server. We can't get --- here in China." And that's BEFORE the new restrictions take place. If a disc jockey can't figure out a work-around, mom and pop Chin won't fare much better.

 

[nimue77]

Eh...won't be that hard. It's called Linux...they'll get used to it.

I don't think it will be that easy Bar. The Chinese gov't is like the Iranian gov't minus the religious fervor to rule the world. But the boot on the population's neck restricts airflow just the same.

On the main music site I trade on, the guys from China always post, "Can you upload that on another server. We can't get --- here in China." And that's BEFORE the new restrictions take place. If a disc jockey can't figure out a work-around, mom and pop Chin won't fare much better.

 

[barman]

I don't think it will be that easy Bar. The Chinese gov't is like the Iranian gov't minus the religious fervor to rule the world. But the boot on the population's neck restricts airflow just the same.

On the main music site I trade on, the guys from China always post, "Can you upload that on another server. We can't get --- here in China." And that's BEFORE the new restrictions take place. If a disc jockey can't figure out a work-around, mom and pop Chin won't fare much better.

Sorry if I suggested it would be "easy".

I'm sure it will not be easy.

But it will happen. It's inevitable and no amount of government control can stop it

It won't be mom and pop

It will be the smartest of the smart.

And they will share with the next level of smart

And pass it on down the line

 

[tiznow]

BBC saying mousavi called off rally for today after getting a warning that police would have live rounds....crazy shite

 

[tiznow]

anyone following this on twitter seems like the main venue for info getting out of iran

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=#Iranelection

also its pretty cool through twitter the outside world is providing proxies to people in iran as the government tries to cut off their communication lines

 

[barman]

.....also its pretty cool through twitter the outside world is providing proxies to people in iran as the government tries to cut off their communication lines

There ya go

I suppose there may have been a day when a well equipped government body could seize and maintain control of the WWW. But I'm pretty sure that day passed sometime in the mid 1990s for North America and most of the Western world.

The 3rd world countries can still put the short term heavy smackdown on internet users within their realms, but with literally each passing day, that ability to quash shrinks just a little bit more

 

[Willie99]

Wow! Did Ahmadinejad hire Karl Rove?

no, but he does have the media in his pocket like the Democrats

 

[Willie99]

I'm surprised (and somewhat pleased) to read that Iran's population of 70m has an estimated 20m internet users.

With that many, government attempts to shut down access to the WWW will inevitably be countered in rather short order by the more technically savvy and those folks will spread the means like wildfire through the country at large.

but they risk being beheaded y'know

 

[ScottL]

[Sigh] Some people do not understand the true nature of oppressive evil in this world. Maybe bkz they've never lived under it. And hopefully they never will.

And still, I hope that all their pipedreams of the future come true.....