throwawayheui57

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.

But this article is about cyber attacks, radar interference, etc. on military and strategic targets. The US/Israel can still do these even with total internet blackout. We saw this in the war! Israel/US still bombed who and whatever they wanted! What does this have to do with internet censorship?

It’s defensive indeed! It’s defense against the people whom the regime is most afraid of!

Should internet and outside access be cut for people of Gaza and Lebanon too? Aren’t they targeted by Israel as well?

Yeah exactly! That’s why islamic regime maintains free flow of information for citizens and invites independent third party investors to find out what really happened!

> if they had kept Internet running, they would have been completely pwned.

Can you elaborate how such thing plays out?

Here’s what you missed from the article:

> noting that according to information she received from medical sources, the death toll might be as high as 20,000 . Due to the ongoing internet shutdown, the scale of mass killings that took place and Iranian authorities’ well-documented pattern of carrying out reprisals against families of victims who speak out, the true number of those killed is likely higher.

I don’t see how this is hard to understand. As I mentioned, the 30000 figure is not dubious, according to UN special rapporteur.

What’s so sad about the whole situation in Iran, apart from what happened, is people trying to “haggle” the number of death. It should be obvious that even one death is too many!

If you really want to get informed about the protests in January and the death toll start looking at Amnesty’s report and you’ll see the 30000 is not dubious. Cherry picking who reported on a piece of news doesn’t invalidate the content of it.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2026/01/what-hap...

You’re right and that’s the sad part. They have their underground cities but haven’t bothered to build shelters for civilians. They care for the school children as little as the US bombs do.

Iranian here! I want to see the regime answer for its crimes. They act like an occupying force, taking the country hostage.

With that being said I don’t like/want the war. I understand and sympathize with the emotional response from my compatriots because they see the oppressors are getting the bloody beating they well deserve. But I don’t really think that the current war brings anything good for the people. I wish it did but it doesn’t look like it. I wish the regime would fall but they haven’t and we now have ~2000 more innocents dead on top of thousands that government killed in January.

> But the thing that gets them rioting is economic failure

I believe Iranians want to be able to decide their own fate, with the dignity that all humans deserve. Without criminal domestic religious zealots and without foreign meddling and bombing.

The previous protest was followed by the killing of Mahsa Amini, in morality police’s custody because of improper hijab. It’s not only economic hardships. But you’re right that war has made the situation worse, obviously.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/10/iran-at-least...

Iran having nukes is unsubstantiated. I also don’t think they wanted to have nukes. But they also enriched Uranium up to 60% according to IAEA which has no non-military use. They perhaps wanted to use that as leverage in negotiations which turned out to be not much of a deterrence.

Can you point out some signs of concession from islamic regime? I think they wouldn’t concede, with or without war. That’s not in their DNA. They are religious extremists.

Regime change with air invasion is unlikely.

The civilian casualties of the war is still significantly lower than the number killed by the regime (according to Amnesty International with conservative number). So while I agree that people don’t want bombing, I highly doubt that the war makes them like their oppressors. They love their country and Iran and islamic regime are not the same exactly.

The other side (regime) publicly state “execute them all” and the response is “bomb them all”. To be clear, I’m not agreeing with the sentiments and agree that bombing the infrastructure is awful, just stating my observation of the state media vs opposition voices.

Come on! You can do better. You have to at least make it remotely believable.

Here's (1) a reference from a relatively credible source with a lot of context. There's a section dedicated to the number you're looking for.

Worth adding that the regime claims around 3000 were killed while not allowing any independent investigation and also completely blocking the internet for days and arresting reporters. Mighty suspicious indeed.

But that is besides my point. Even if we go with the regime's number and compare it with the casualties of the war (2), you can get a picture of the scale of the massacre compared to an actual war against US freakin army!

1. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2026/01/what-hap...

2. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/1/us-israel-attacks-on...

In a war where Israel and US are literally bombing the hell out of Iran, fewer people have been killed than those two days of massacre.

All according to the numbers confirmed by Iranian government.

God, the moral depravity of defending the IRGC and islamic regime is mind boggling. You can still be against Mossad and what they do in Iran while holding the islamic regime accountable for its own atrocities.

> In the same way that you mainly only post in threads to support toppling the Iranian regime

Oh I, like many of my people, have been posting and supporting toppling of this murderous dictatorship long before this war. I don’t even support the war and don’t think it’s the best way to get rid of the islamic regime.

> I am again asking you to think critically

Let’s: Why do jump in to defend an illegitimate regime so relentlessly. Isn’t it ironic you mention astroturfing?

> You yourself have questioned sources before

Yup, no need to trust Iran International. You can check NetBlocks if you really care about the source. It’s not that difficult.

A government should not hinder its own people’s access to potentially life saving communication channels especially in war time. Whether it’s Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine or Iran. Pointing this out isn’t manufacturing consent for war and shouldn’t make one mad.

https://mastodon.social/@netblocks/116232059137625268

So is this a lie? Is netblocks also lying? Is everyone astroturfing?

With internet being practically shut down by the “government” except for a very few individuals connected to the regime, my family in Iran has no means to get the alerts about the areas that are getting or gonna get bombed or have been bombed and maybe able to the non existent shelters.

Of course. It has actually staunched supporters. One cannot kill innocents in the streets by just the promise of money. So there’s religious ideology involved. However the percentage matters a lot here and even 10% of 90 million is a large number.

*typo edit

update: Here’s some relatively independent polling from inside Iran which does not corroborate the 50/50 divide. And remember this was taken before the 2026 massacre: https://gamaan.org/2025/08/20/analytical-report-on-iranians-...

> AFAIK, about 50% support the religious strongman in both countries.

Do you have any credible source for this?

There’s a difference between the ban where they don’t give you visa vs. censorship where they disappear you if you publicize your dissent. One must not conflate.

> killed some Zionist spies. These are not the same.

Be careful, you still need some moral credibility left, to defend the Palestinians with.

of course. How do you think they systematically massacred so many people in so many cities during the protests. All those personnel are now devastated.

> intentional martyrdom

He didn’t play 4D chess. I’d bet on pure hubris.

Kinda sorta... The reality of the situation is much more complicated. The narrative and actions of the Islamic regime don’t quite corroborate "Israeli hegemony in the region" as the sole purpose of this conflict. Their narrative has not been one of defense in the past; it's always been offense. When they talk about Israel, they talk about Quds (Arabic name for Jerusalem), Quds' freedom, and annihilation of Israel. Even the foreign arm of the IRGC forces are named Quds! They operate in Syria and Lebanon, right next to Israel's border. That's why I said that their enmity with Israel is not from a moral standpoint or, evidently, even defending Iran. It takes two to tango!

Obviously, all this is not to say that Israel doesn't have a hegemonic stance. Probably even Arab nations have those dreams too!

You're seeing this vast field of geopolitical shit show through a tiny crack of news and social media from the last year.