The same set of people behind that project were supposedly given additional resources to smuggle Starlinks inside, and in the Persian community on Twitter, there's an ongoing meme mocking where those Starlinks actually went and given to whom, never to get an answer...
[1]: TLDR: data archive within DVB-S video stream
One would think this is exactly the sort of circumstances under which store-and-forward/delay-tolerant routing would be useful. Years before Jack Dorsey thought of bitchat[0] I had the same idea, but never pursued it because I live in a western country but not in a "tech city", in other words, nobody around here is interested in being an early adopter of an app primarily of use only to preppers or people living under repressive authoritarian regimes.
Anyways, it's a great idea in theory, as the techno-anarchist preppers that LARP with off-the-shelf lilygo LoRa tranceivers will be happy to tell you. But in practice nobody who actually could benefit from these seems to adopt these things. Or at least I never hear about it, if they indeed do. Perhaps today's internet blackouts are too transient for a 2026 version of samizdat to develop?
Do the people you know inside Iran plan to just wait it out, or do they have some other solution ready for a total blackout?
There are some government-sanctioned messengers that apparently keep working but some people would not use it as they are completely insecure and watched by big brother, of course. The biggest issue is getting data out of the country not internal comms (e.g. video evidence of massacre, for example, so that some poeple like in this very thread don't get the ammo to whitewash the regime, intentionally or accidentally.)
No doubt. Unless there's somebody friendly just across the border in Azerbaijan or Basrah or something, I don't see how they'd do it. Maybe point a dish and establish a point to point link, but you'd need to pre-arrange that.
I dont think that helps that much. If you have satalite tv going in, you already have video coming in, are arbitrary files really that much more useful?
The thing people really want internet communication for is 2 way coms. Getting info on the situation on the ground out and allowing different groups inside Iran to coordinate. I fail to see how this helps with that.
Which is neither new nor novel.
PlayCable was doing this to download console games over analog cable systems <checks notes> 46 years ago.
TeleText says hello.
Now having said that, given the nature of the Iranian theocracy, they are quite capable of such acts. Remember that they have hanged homosexuals from cranes,[3] and executed rape victims.[4] But 30,000 in a day is an extraordinary claim which requires more evidence, certainly more than circular references tracing back to just one source.
[1] https://thegrayzone.com/2026/02/01/guardian-iranian-death-to...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Asgari_and_Ayaz_Marhon...
[4] https://www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle/people/crime-against-...
The number was given over two days, not one.
The protests were in over 200 cities with 5 million+ participants, WE KNOW they fired live rounds this is undeniable if you only had 200 deaths per city you would reach a death toll north of 40k already. Yes it's not verified yes there isnt a video of exactly 30000 identifiable bodies side by side. But the number really isnt as unachievable as people make it out to be.
From another article: The 30,000 figure is also far beyond tallies being compiled by activists methodically assigning names to the dead. As of Saturday, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it had confirmed 5,459 deaths and is investigating 17,031 more.
https://www.aol.com/articles/iran-protest-death-toll-could-1...
The mass murdering of 5,400 people is nothing to scoff at, on any level, even over two days.
For clarity 3,900 tons over four raids and 1,500 planes.
I’m not sure how to translate that into modern munitions but I’m also uncertain why a strategic bombing death toll should tell us anything about Iranian protester deaths. Iran isn’t doing strategic bombing of their citizens, they’re using small arms across hundreds of locations.
The linked article cites a source [1] with detailed methodology for their actual claim of 7,000 deaths and mentions that could go as high as 30,000. I don’t see any claim of that being in a single day.
Given the timeframe and widespread nature of these protests it doesn’t seem implausible.
[1]: https://www.en-hrana.org/the-crimson-winter-a-50-day-record-...
Interesting read but that part really made me question my own sanity. It’s probably just lost in translation.
zenmac•1h ago
A bit disappointing TBH if that is their solution. Seems like everything is trying to pigeon hole everyone into the proof of work scenario. If we have more power/energy then we will beat you in everything security, coding and censorship circumvention.
femto•1h ago
wiml•1h ago
hgoel•1h ago