FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The communications blackout in Iran is unlike anything we've seen before, but can Elon Musk help circumvent it? The Iranian government has a history of shutting down the internet during protests as a way to control the flow of information. In the past, however, these shutdowns have been a harsh instrument, limiting all access to the internet. This time, the blackout seems more precise.
Iranian officials are still posting online, and the state-backed IRIB media agency published a list of unblocked websites available to the public on Monday morning. They include a small number of sites such as domestic search engines, mapping apps, entertainment sites and state-backed news agencies.
Filterbaan, a digital rights group focused on Iran, told X that although the sites on the list had not been independently verified as functional, " this list shows that the government has no intention of returning the internet to its pre-protest status . "
The blockade began on Thursday and Iranians living abroad told Sky News they have been unable to contact family members since. For the first time, the Iranian government also managed to shut down Starlink connections.
Starlink, a network of low-Earth orbit satellites operated by Musk's SpaceX, were used during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini to keep communications flowing amid an internet outage.
Although Starlink devices cannot be registered in Iran, the network has been used regularly in the country for years. On Thursday, that use was halted, as was regular internet use.
However, a group working to deploy Starlinks across Iran posted on X saying it was working with the company's engineers to overcome the bottlenecks.
" The interference and packet loss status in Tehran has improved significantly, dropping from around 35% to almost 10%. If you are in Tehran and still experiencing issues, make sure to install last night's updates. The interference issue is an ongoing cat-and-mouse game; therefore, conditions may change again or even worsen. However, we will not stop our efforts ," the NasNet team posted on Saturday evening.
President Donald Trump has also told reporters that he will speak with Mr. Musk about restoring the internet in Iran.
" He's very good at this kind of thing, he's in very good company ," he said on Sunday.
A map showing GPS jamming hotspots showed significant blockages around Tehran on Thursday. In the past, NasNet has advised Starlink users to change their settings to avoid deliberate government jamming and interference with the GPS system./ SkyNews
Lini një Përgjigje