Tell HN: A hacker's life is in danger, your awareness may be life saving

Imagine learning to program with no access (or highly disrupted access) to google, stack overflow and github.

Where you have to download web pages for later use in case your internet is cut off.

Where random power outages can suddenly interrupt you many times a day.

Where using a vpn can be used against you in a criminal case.

I can imagine that anyone who perseveres through those kinds of obstacles to become a programmer would have some pretty tremendous grit and would build them into a great developer.

Because the US wants to back something it can control, not a popular movement. The US government backed Iran's prior cruel and sadistic minority.

2. If you know someone influential from country that Iran trades with, let them know. It is bit difficult as no country in Western world trades with Iran. And China doesn't give two shits about human rights abuse, same with India. South Korea and Turkey are the largest importer after those.

3. Upvote so that chances of someone who could help with first two could see this thread.

Source: I am an Iranian

Facebook, Twitter, Reddit et al are modern censorship platforms. I know that saying that violates liberal dogma, but it's true. You could probably even go so far as to say cancel culture is a censorship platform, particularly when it's misused.

The problem with censorship is that it stifles intellectualism. Intellectuals have always cut against the grain and said crazy shit in essays, much like I'm saying now. It's the sort of crazy shit that challenges your worldview, and it's natural to want to downvote, report, and have that content removed from your platform of choice.

But intellectualism is the only thing that can create a revolution.

And politically-correct censorship is getting all the intellectuals silenced (along with all the actual idiots).

Now, what's it mean to "stop supporting censorship?" Everybody agrees that, as private platforms, these companies have the right to moderate and remove any speech that they choose. The problem is that they're also seeking protections under Section 230, which says "Internet companies that don't moderate their content can't be responsible for their content." This creates a dilemma, especially when these companies have created an oligopoly surrounding online speech.

We need legislation that establishes the public forums and discussion areas on these providers as public utilities so that their users receive first amendment protections under the Constitution. This still allows them to remove content that violates the first amendment - like incitement - but would otherwise reclaim the internet as the world's largest mass free speech zone.

If the west cracked down on Iran's powerful grifters half as hard as it is going after Russian oligarchs, the regime would be under a lot of pressure. The oligarchs, in comparison, don't seem to mind - they are more afraid of Putin.

vs almost daily for the last while (week? month?) on CNN.

I find that very interesting, since in the national and local newspapers I read in the United States, the Iranian protesters have been extensively covered. There were multiple stories each day at the beginning, and even now at least two or three each week.

In what country are you? Which newspapers are letting you down?

I'm not quite there yet myself, I sometimes fall in the bad habit of news surfing for fun, but I found the wiki portal to be sufficient to keep reasonably informed.

Also, people participate in protests because they feel need to do something and are willing to take the risk. It is the "I can't stay passive anymore" statement and feeling at large.

And there were succesfull protests. That is how communism ended. That is how Ukraine protests kept it democracy back in 2014 (rather then allowing it to become Belurussia). And Iran had succesfull revolution too, through that one brought religious dictatorship.

he is not doing anything illegal, he just wants a better life for everybody including the guys who jailed him and their children. His best bet is that some of those guys would understand his motivations and help him.

Now he probably does not fully understand the regime motivation and how the police state lives in a paranoia. Not because he's stupid, because sometimes the only way out of a situation is to trust your opponent with your own life. Sometimes you do what your guts tell you to do

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-nie...

What we can do is try and support everyone who is taking action to better their place in the world. If all we have is our attention and our voices, that is what we MUST use.

Even if just to tell Iranians that we hear their voices and support their cause.