From stealth blackout to whitelisting: Inside the Iranian shutdown

Iran’s National Information Network and Domestic Tech Ecosystem

• Commenters describe Iran’s National Information Network (NIN) as a long‑planned, whitelisted “pure internet” designed after the Green Revolution.
• Iran is said to have built a surprisingly capable domestic cloud/telco stack under sanctions, even exporting ICT services and fiber infrastructure to several Global South countries.
• Leadership with strong technical backgrounds is viewed as a key factor in this build‑out, contrasted with Europe’s humanities‑heavy policymaker class.

Sanctions, Protectionism, and Economic Models

• Some argue sanctions and de‑facto protectionism “supercharged” Iranian and Chinese tech sectors, citing targeted protectionism as a valid economic tool.
• Others respond that China’s growth came from liberalization despite state meddling, and that protectionism caps per‑capita potential; comparisons with Japan and Taiwan are debated.
• There is disagreement on how neoclassical economics treats protectionism and on whether China invalidates traditional comparative advantage theory.

Shutdown Strategy and “Digital Apartheid”

• The regime’s switch to whitelisting—keeping IPv4 active for selected users while most are cut off—is labeled by some as “digital apartheid.”
• Others object to the term’s racial connotations, but supporters emphasize “apartness” via differential communications rights.
• Similar whitelisting practices in Russia are noted, along with broader RIC (Russia–Iran–China) tech cooperation.

Repression, Violence, and Foreign Involvement

• Multiple comments stress that the NIN and shutdowns primarily serve to suppress protests and hide mass killings; figures of thousands of protesters killed are cited.
• Some blame Western sanctions and historic interference (Iran–Iraq war, regime‑change efforts) for Iran’s trajectory; others reject this as deflection from the regime’s own brutality.
• There is debate over the role of Western and Israeli hybrid warfare and intelligence agencies versus genuine popular uprisings.

Democracy, Elections, and Comparisons

• One side claims Iranian elections are less “shady” than in the US; others counter that tightly vetted candidates, a dominant Supreme Leader, and repeated uprisings show elections are largely symbolic.
• Parallels are drawn to India’s “sliding democracy,” information control, and propaganda, and to Western hubris about exporting its political model.

Information Blackout, Media, and Circumvention

• Commenters lament the near‑total absence of foreign on‑the‑ground reporting, contrasting it with past conflicts; some argue media now sells influence more than investigation.
• Technical workarounds discussed include V2Ray chains, potential use of Google Safe Browsing IP for Colab/SSH, Cloudflare tunnels, and GitHub resources for anti‑censorship tools.
• An Iranian commenter says connectivity has “returned to normal” and tells outsiders to stop harming Iran, while another accuses them of being a regime “cyber soldier,” illustrating deep internal polarization.