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The Internet

Iran's Answer To the Coronavirus Outbreak: Cut the Internet (vice.com) 42

Posted by BeauHD from the damage-control dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Moments after Iran announced that a top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader had died as a result of the coronavirus, the government blocked access to the Persian version of Wikipedia. The restrictions remained in place for 24 hours, though an oversight by the government meant that while the desktop version of the site was blocked, the mobile version remained available. Access to the Farsi version of Wikipedia was restored on Tuesday, but social media sites like Twitter and Facebook remain restricted inside the country as of Wednesday, as the government seeks to control the spread of information and keep a grip on the narrative around the increasingly deadly outbreak. Netblocks, a digital rights advocacy group that tracks internet disruptions around the world, said that there has also been widespread internet disruptions at night in certain parts of the country, including Qom, where the outbreak is believed to have originated. Tehran's police force created a "coronavirus defense base" to monitor "misinformation and the spread of fear." So far, the police have already arrested 24 people and a further 118 internet users were "talked to and let go" with warnings.

The country also released 54,000 prisoners in an effort to halt the spread of the virus. "The inmates were temporarily allowed out of jail after testing negative for the coronavirus and posting bail," reports Motherboard. "The government is also deploying hundreds of thousands of health workers across the country to stop the deadly outbreak."
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Iran's Answer To the Coronavirus Outbreak: Cut the Internet More

Iran's Answer To the Coronavirus Outbreak: Cut the Internet

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  • Please cite a reputable source.

  • So? (Score:3)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Thursday March 05, 2020 @06:19PM (#59800982)

    Algeria does it each year when high-school exams are taking place.

    • There's a very big difference between turning off the internet to prevent cheating on tests and turning off the internet to prevent people from getting information about an ongoing disease because them getting that information is politically uncomfortable..

  • Well (Score:5, Informative)

    by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Thursday March 05, 2020 @06:20PM (#59800986) Journal

    It's only one step further than the leader of the most powerful nation on the planet calling the World Health Organization liars.

    • birbs of a feather, eh?

    • Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Mr D from 63 ( 3395377 ) on Thursday March 05, 2020 @07:02PM (#59801128)

      It's only one step further than the leader of the most powerful nation on the planet calling the World Health Organization liars.

      Which never happened. What is sad is that Trump seems to understand what the WHO numbers represent much better than the media reporting them and the sheep that just accept what the media feed them. WHO provides percentage of reported deaths to reported cases. Since there are likely many unreported cases but probably very few unreported deaths, that ACTUAL death rate is likely less than the WHO death rate of reported cases. The WHO doesn't provide the ACTUAL death rate, and they don't claim to.

      For healthy people, the virus is quite mild and therefore they often may not reported it.

      • The "actual" death rate (i.e. including infections that are detectable but asymptomatic) is pretty useless without additional information such as the overall infection rate through some area, which in the US is information we are taking no steps to obtain.

      • I think the bigger problem was calling it a hoax (Score:4, Insightful)

        by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday March 05, 2020 @08:03PM (#59801376)
        Yeah, yeah, it's debatable if he, in a legal sense, called it a hoax. But his followers listen to the general feeling of his words, not the specifics, and in tone and feeling he called it a hoax and that's what his cadre would have heard and understood.

      • Re:Well (Score:5, Informative)

        by kbahey ( 102895 ) on Thursday March 05, 2020 @08:11PM (#59801396) Homepage

        What is sad is that Trump seems to understand what the WHO numbers represent much better than the media reporting them and the sheep that just accept what the media feed them. WHO provides percentage of reported deaths to reported cases. Since there are likely many unreported cases but probably very few unreported deaths, that ACTUAL death rate is likely less than the WHO death rate of reported cases. The WHO doesn't provide the ACTUAL death rate, and they don't claim to.

        You can check the mortality rate yourself from this data set [arcgis.com], which is exactly 3.42%. Data from non-transparent countries like China and Iran are suspect. So if you take only Italy's data (much better transparency), it is close to that figure (3.8%). The remaining countries have a smaller set of results.

        On the other hand, Trump said the WHO mortality number (3.4%) is false, based on his hunch! [youtube.com], and he said that infected people could go to work! That is irresponsible to say the least.

        And as usual, Trump blamed the Obama administration for the lack of testing of the Coronavirus [youtube.com]. He is obsessed with Obama: whether he is not born in the USA, undoing anything Obama did, or blaming him for everything ...

        For healthy people, the virus is quite mild and therefore they often may not reported it.

        There are some examples that seem to contradict this notion that young people cannot die.

        For example Wenliang Li, the Chinese doctor who blew the whistle in Wuhan, was 34 years old [bbc.com] and died from the virus.

        And a 23 year old woman died in Iran [nytimes.com] too.

        That does not mean that young people are vulnerable, e.g. like the cytokine storm that was induced by some forms of the flu. But there may be something going on there.

      • WHO provides percentage of reported deaths to reported cases .. that ACTUAL death rate is likely less than the WHO death rate of reported cases. ... For healthy people, the virus is quite mild and therefore they often may not reported it.

        STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!!!

        You're not helping the fear mongering at all here! There's News, and Masks, Soap, and Fear to be sold! How Dare You!

        Yes, it's serious. Yes, it's contagious. Yes, many people are going to DIE. Yes, we had the Spanish Flu, Black Plague, starvation and whatnot before and most people survived. Not all of them though. It's almost like people are mortal and that something or other will kill them eventually -- surprise!

        Enjoy every day. Have some fun. Get your vaccines. Do

      • Re:Well (Score:5, Funny)

        by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Thursday March 05, 2020 @09:01PM (#59801528)

        Trump seems to understand

        I can see the flaw in your argument right there.

      • What is sad is that Trump seems to understand

        And you can stop right there.

    • Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hey! ( 33014 ) on Thursday March 05, 2020 @07:35PM (#59801238) Homepage Journal

      Trump is not ... well let's say he's not particularly articulate or well-informed. But in this case I don't think he's got bad intentions. People shouldn't panic over the 3.4% mortality rate figure from WHO, which while accurate,is misleading as it is dominated by a very high mortality rate in Wuhan.

      That's not so complicated to understand, but Trump's messaging (and that of the White House in general) has been really bad on this. Instead of pointing out that the 3.4% death rate is accurate but misleading, he's floated the possibility that there's a huge number unreported cases, which would suggest the virus is far, far more transmissible than previously thought. I don't think that's what he wanted to say.

      There's a reason that epidemiolgists work from reported cases isn't because they're too dim to realize there might be unreported cases. It's because those are the facts you have, and otherwise you're working from shit you're making up.

  • But then, most of their senior leadership is ill or dying, so ...

    • Don't look too closely at the guy running the US, or the two guys vying for his job. The whole thing reminds me of late Soviet era, when the Politburo was appointing leaders who were already dying, and Kremlin parades had the leadership standing there looking like they'd already been embalmed.

      • Yes, it is iconic [gettyimages.com]

      • What are you 14? Just because someone is in their 70's does not mean they are dead. People are living longer so naturally there will be older people in all sorts of roles. There was something about a guy who was a surveyor who retired recently at over 100yo. Older than you does not mean dead.

        • Re:Will just make it spread faster (Score:4, Insightful)

          by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Thursday March 05, 2020 @08:31PM (#59801448) Journal

          Bernie had major heart issues, Donald has to spray paint a tan on. Biden seems the most vigorous of the three, but for chrissakes he's 77. That means, if he wins in November, by the end of his first term in January 2025, he'll be 82 years old. I have nothing against older people, but come on, that's pushing it.

          • I disagree with your assessment of Biden, he seems the weakest (mentally.) and spray tan? people in their 20's have spay tan. With respect to Bernie, he had a heart attack which could be tiny or major. My Dad is 84 and going strong, however it is open for younger people they just are too crap to get nominated.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Rhaize ( 626145 )

            Donald has to spray paint a tan on.

            You got it wrong.. his makeup is coming off, #OompaLoompaForPres2020 Don't discriminate against the first Oompa Loompa in Chief!

  • At least they're not lying about it.

  • Just Talked To The Family There (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ardashir ( 2478492 ) on Thursday March 05, 2020 @06:35PM (#59801046)
    No internet filtering other than the usual. There has been massive western media misinformation and schadenfreude over what's going on in Iran. Until a couple of days ago, the narrative was that Iran had the highest mortality rate outside of China and they blamed the government for it. But now that Italy has surpassed it both in numbers and per capita rate, same naked propaganda is being published without citing the numbers anymore. I understand if the government there tries to get a hold of the narrative to be able to prevent panic and manage the already grave situation. It has a trust deficit that just cannot replenish on short notice.

    • Well, I'm glad all is well with your folks. And, as noted elsewhere, cutting service to one or a few sites is hardly "Cuttting teh Internetz!!1!(TM)" It's too bad that you're seeing inaccurate stuff: basically, I'm wasn't seeing general media reports about Iran any more since it's popping up everywhere (well, until this article about censoring (Streisand effect?)). I remember one thing that got westerners talking was the Iranian leadership censoring covid-19 news to ensure better turnout for voting. Note: I

      • Re:Just Talked To The Family There (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Ardashir ( 2478492 ) on Thursday March 05, 2020 @09:39PM (#59801596)
        As far as I could tell (living abroad myself and getting the news from the friends, family and the online media there) the government didn't censor the news of the disease, but went ahead with the election and didn't postpone it, taking a few measures, most half-baked, to prevent the spread of the disease. I don't think they had the foggiest idea of how deep they were in trouble, considering the number of law makers that came down with the disease, most having contracted them during the campaigning. The western media is just so blatantly trying to push opinion as news nowadays that it has become practically painful to read; and not just about Iran.

  • Cut the internet (Score:4, Insightful)

    by belthize ( 990217 ) on Thursday March 05, 2020 @06:40PM (#59801064)

    Is not synonymous with blocking a web site. Note that Iran is reported to have blocked the Persian version of wikipedia for 24 hours. As of 11+ months ago China has permanently blocked wikipedia in all languages: https://www.bbc.com/news/techn... [bbc.com]

    Anyway, slashdot is quickly becoming "breathless news for virus fanciers". If you have a legitimate article about the virus in terms of science sure, but if it's just random political shilling using the virus as a platform then maybe give it a rest.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

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