Iran Internet shutdown
Imagine
whole country being cut off from the Internet in matter of minutes. In nowadays
world it seems both scary and improbable. Despite that, exactly this is what
happened in Iran on 15.11.2019.
Why did it happen?
Iran has
been struggling economically for years now. The main reason are economic
sanctions imposed by US. Iran nuclear programme started in early 1950s. Since
at least 1980s United States are among countries that strongly oppose it and
are trying to prevent government led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei from
continuing it. Their main way of pressuring Iran are earlier mentioned economic
sanctions.
Reinstantiation
of sanctions in 2018 led Iran’s economy to further recession. Experts suggest
that Iranian economy can shrink by more than 6% by the end of 2019. This forced
Iran’s government to introduce some reforms and changes. One of those changes
led to widespread protests in whole country.
On November
15, 2019 Iran leaders announced that they plan to increase prices of fuel by at
least 50 percent. The next day, Iranians started protests on the streets.
Iranian authorities except of using conventional methods of fighting protesters
like: riot police, Revolutionary Guard (branch of Iranian Army), pepper gas and
batons turned to other measures as well. They decided to shutdown the access to
the Internet for Iranians.
Cutting off
people from outside world is a best way for government to prevent information
about how protesters are treated from spreading. Any information about protests
are not beneficial for ruling government international image. It damages rulers
legitimacy and weakens their position in eyes of the whole world. However,
thanks to internet shutdown people of Iran weren’t able to share with outside
world what is happening inside the country.
A burnt-out gas station in Tehran after protests
How did it happen?
How can
whole country be cut off from the Internet connection? Mr. Lily Hay Newman a
senior security reporter at Wired magazine explains:
“With this Iranian shutdown, which is so far beyond anything
the government had done before, they likely grappled with these protective
mechanisms. They would take down a portion of the network and then the network
would automatically reroute around that dead portion to keep providing service.
And then they would have to kind of do a whack-a-mole type situation to get it
all under control.”
The whole
shutdown lasted over a week and now slowly comes to an end. However, the whole
process of reactivating access to the network is hard and takes time. Iranians
still find their internet access severely limited.
Graph prepared by NetBlocks.org depicting Iranian
internet shutdown
Implications
There are
multiple implications of such shutdown. One that I have already mentioned is
that recovering the whole network takes time and is not that easy. However, the
economic results of such cut off are much more severe than we tend to think. It
is estimated that it costed Iranian economy around $1.5bn. How could such
losses be generated in such a short time? Nowadays economy is extremely reliant
on web applications and tools that are used in international trade f.e.
blockchain that is used for banking transactions. Without access to them we witnessed situations
like: a record sell-off in the Tehran Stock Exchange, ships not being able to
communicate with ports, currency exchange bureaus not being able to convert
money. This had hit already struggling economy of Iran even harder and may lead
to worsening the already tough situation of Iranian citizens.
Personally
I think that this shutdown is a dangerous sign that show us how desperate can
regimes be in order to maintain control. Consequences of such actions are
damaging lives of normal people and not of the ones that are in power. If this
situation had lasted longer it could have led to complete collapse of Iran’s
economy. Because of that from now on I will watch more closely how my
government approaches internet control.
Questions
(choose only 3 to answer):
1. Have you heard
about latest developments in situation in Iran before, what is your opinion
about them?
2. Do you think our
government would be able to cut off the whole country from the Internet if it
wanted to?
3. Can you think of any
other countries that have strict surveillance over their citizens when it comes
to their activities in Internet?
4. How would such Internet
shutdown impact your everyday life? How much do you depend on it?
Sources:
Comments
I think they would be able to do it but without a proper reason for it they might have been sued or investigated or anything else for all the damage that such decision lead to.
3. Can you think of any other countries that have strict surveillance over their citizens when it comes to their activities in Internet?
Yes - I believe North Korea is the most strict country in terms internet access. From what I've heard someday only around 1000 citizens are approved and able to access it.
4. How would such Internet shutdown impact your everyday life? How much do you depend on it?
Most companies rely nowadays on the internet connection so it'd be devastating for them. Such shutdown would surely impact our everyday life but we would still have the electricity so it wouldn't be too bad.
2. Possibly for a short period of time. But I am very sure riots would quickly occur and the government would be either overthrown or forced to fix that.
3. That one is easy. North Korea is kind of mainstream example for that. Recently, I've also heared about somewhat similar situation occuring in Turkmenistan.
4. Since I work as web developer, the internet would have a heavy impact on my life. I also kind of can't imagine my everyday without the internet. How would I contact people and browse memes.
Right, losing memes would be a disaster I have to agree with you on that one :)
3. Russia. This is a country where you can go to prison for truthful criticism of the government or just for a non-standard opinion.
4. I don't have big problems with the lack of Internet on my phone, for example. But the Internet is necessary for study or work. But if the Internet suddenly disappears, it will really cause at least some anxiety.
2. I think they could do that but they don't do that because it would be their over. Riots would be on whole country. In Poland there is many IT companies who create applications and pay high TAXes so it's lose-lose situation.
4. I think it's that type of amenities in our life that we cannot predict how it would be without if we don't survive it on our own. I use internet everyday and don't feel it I use it so it's hard to understand to take it away.
First I hear that Iran has been cut off from the internet. It's weird for me that the government has cut them off from the internet and I don't know what to think about it.
Poland is in the European Union and our government has no right to cut us off from access to the world. The situation in Iran is unlikely to be repeated in Europe or the USA.
The first country that comes to my mind when I think about monitoring is China. Every movement of a person or car is monitored there and the government knows everything about people. It's probably the same in North Korea.
If I were cut off from the Internet, I would have to start using paper maps instead of navigation and set up a paper calendar. Besides, it would not be a problem for me to cut off from the internet. Oh, and I need someone to play chess with: P
2. I think, in a peaceful way, no.
3. China.
4. In a large extent, since most of the information is there, it is well structured, it is easier to search for what you need.
3. My first thought is PRC and DPRK. In DPRK, access to the internet is very limited, only the elite has access to it. There is restrictive censorship in DPRK and PRC. People don't have legal access to content that government doesn't like.
4. Lack of access to the internet would be terrible for me. I use the internet every day to contact my friends, to check the public transport schedule, for university-related matters and for learning.