- Two-week blackout tests system where web access becomes a vetted privilege.
- Regime insiders use “white SIM cards” for unrestricted access, while 85 million citizens remain cut off.
- Irancell’s CEO was fired for delaying the shutdown.
[…]
Following a repressive crackdown on protests, the government is now building a system that grants web access only to security-vetted elites, while locking 90 million citizens inside an intranet.
[…]
This is what makes Iran’s attempt unique: Other authoritarian states built walls before their populations went online. Iran is trying to seal off a connected economy already in freefall.
The system is called Barracks Internet, according to confidential planning documents obtained by Filterwatch. Under this architecture, access to the global web will be granted only through a strict security whitelist.
[…]
The idea of tiered internet access is not new in Iran. Since at least 2013, the regime has quietly issued “white SIM cards,” giving unrestricted global internet access to approximately 16,000 people. The system gained public attention in November 2025 when X’s location feature revealed that certain accounts, including the communications minister, were connecting directly from inside Iran, despite X being blocked since 2009.
[…]
The economic costs of the blackout are staggering. Iran’s deputy communications minister pegged the daily losses at as much as $4.3 million. NetBlocks estimates the true cost exceeds $37 million daily. More than 10 million Iranians depend directly on digital platforms for their livelihoods.
Tipax, one of Iran’s largest private delivery companies handling about 320,000 daily shipments before the protests, now processes fewer than a few hundred, according to Filterwatch. The company operates a nationwide logistics network comparable to FedEx in the U.S. market.
[…]
Technical experts doubt the regime can sustain Barracks Internet without crippling the economy.
[…]
"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth’s final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. Commissioner Pravin Lal, ‘U.N. Declaration of Rights’ "
No. I can’t think of a better way of mobilizing the people than taking away internet. This won’t happen. If it does, it will be a disaster.
I absolutely cannot imagine the hell they’re going through right now.
That won’t save them from the total economic collapse they’re going through. Iran is gonna fall one way or another.
This will even contribute to the economic collapse.
Correct. It immediately hampers any and all businesses that even marginally rely on internet to function. Shooting yourself in the foot just to spite the leg.
Such a sad tale of a beautiful country with a rich culture heritage and wonderful culinary experiences and scientific excellence and etc etc, all going to waste behind closed walls.
So what are the alternatives, when it happens to us?
Meshtastic? Or what?
um, we should be killing the elites?
Short wave
Can shortwave be used for things like file transfer? My thoughts are on the amount of times multiple videos of instances (ICE killings are currently the most famous) being indisputable thanks to witnesses providing video that contradicts official statements.
There are amateur radio data protocols but it’s slow as fuck.
I mean we can probably get an old modem working over it, so yeah? The kind you’d put your phone receiver on. I’m no expert, but em waves are em waves
I know next to nothing about it aside from the bare basics 😅 so any thoughts are welcome.
Uh, the licensing exam is supposedly very easy to pass, and there’s no better time to become a ham operator I hear
If you’re splan is to spread information that is illegal to own then becoming licensed is the exact opposite of what you want.
yeah but the licensing exam has all the info you need to know
The solution is Starlink. Yes. (it says on the article that the solution is Starlink)
Even that could become a risk if they are banned in the country. They can be detected and your location triangulated.
This would be a set it up somewhere that’s not home, use it quickly, pack it up and go type situation.
They are already banned they are being detected and the satellites are being stolen by the police.
I assume the base stations are being stolen by the police. If their police are able to steal the satellites, then I have to confess to be somewhat impressed.
yeah that’s what I meant.
The hell it is
If they are in a permanent war with the US and Israel? No shit. Fucking war mongers over here manipulating us.
Hey, I found one with a white SIM card
I don’t know what that means. Is that the troll the influence agents and their dupes are going with?
lol someone didn’t even bother to read the post description
As if that drivel is anything but Israeli cassus belli.
Its funny how the neocons have suddenly become humanitarians.
Yeah they are full of shit and spamming us with bots and agents, chatbots on ai now too I’m sure.
Can we please turn off the Internet permanently for the whole world?
We don’t need no information We don’t need no thought control No dark web portals full of pornos Hey, teachers, leave those kids alone
All in all those phones are all just bricks in the wall.
Just turn it off at night time
Maybe they had it right in Ready Player One.
