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There's no single mechanism. Iran's internet is diverse at the edge, and bottlenecked at the international gateway.

Censorship, throttling, and (presumably) surveillance occurs at both layers. In some cases, also the region matters (Sistan and Baluchistan for example have experienced extended blackouts). In part that heterogeneity is because they still ideally want to keep businesses or VIPs online to mitigate the economic loss or logistical issues.

Consequently, the actual means of blocking tends to be on an ISP basis: some will simply drop packets, some will have left certain endpoints open, some will leave international DNS open, etc etc. All that changes when activists notice, exploit the opening, and then the ISP finds out. And then sometimes the TIC (the gateway) will impose blanket limitations or throttling.

My impression is that Iranian intelligence cares less about means than effectiveness, and ISP operators want to keep their license, livelihoods and lives, so they figure out how to meet the mandate. Given that this is something like the fourth blackout in recent years, they've gotten enough practice that there's few options out (that aren't Starlink).


> Consequently, the actual means of blocking tends to be on an ISP basis: some will simply drop packets, some will have left certain endpoints open, some will leave international DNS open, etc etc. All that changes when activists notice, exploit the opening, and then the ISP finds out. And then sometimes the TIC (the gateway) will impose blanket limitations or throttling.

Your international dns is interesting post, can dns over https still work like cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 (I don't think cf would work but still) or any other service?

Is there any iranian person in here hackernews who can test if international dns query works?

There are ways to send some very important data (although small so a little limited but I think in current time if it can help 1% it helps) that I saw that we can program dns to send each other arbitrary data as well

In fact there is a tool which can in fact run dns queries and create a sort of finger like protocol on it called dns.toys https://www.dns.toys/

Which can basically have some cli application like experience on top of dns and there msut be dns tools for communications as well.


The term you're looking for is "dns tunneling".

This cannot be done by Executive Order anyway.

That's not the point.

He's issued plenty of other executive orders that aren't legal in order to continue to bullshit his base. The reason why he's deferring to congress now (instead of trying to take credit) is because he knows it's not possible and can use that as leverage against members of Congress.


think you mean the FTC.


It does make you wonder, given how much investment fraud targets regular people, whether there is considerable overlap between the target surface area of the FTC and what was the CFPB.


CFPB was created in part because of the failure of the FTC during the financial crisis. I’d suspect this specific issue would still be more under the remit of FTC, but no need for pedantry on the overall point. Sad to see enforcement agencies decimated — expect more of this.


I meant CFPB. Thank you for alerting me to the error.


What are the chances that this is made possible because of the DMA?


Around 1.0, I would say.


0, this is reverse engineered AirDrop protocol. Implementations have been around for a while, eg: https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop


If implemntations have been around for a while but it only happened now, then it's 99% chance that's it's Apple backpedalling and trying to weasel their way around DMA.

They got smoked in court, see ruling at https://ec.europa.eu/competition/digital_markets_act/cases/2...

    5.4.8. Implementation timing
    (245) Apple should provide effective interoperability with the P2P Wi-Fi connection
    feature by implementing the measures for Wi-Fi Aware 4.0 in the next major iOS
    release, i.e. iOS 19, at the latest, and for Wi-Fi Aware 5.0 in the next iOS release at
    the latest nine months following the introduction of the Wi-Fi Aware 5.0
    specification.


These rulings only affect third-party apps, not AirDrop. Apple is not required to stop using AWDL for system apps, and is also not required to allow third-party implementations of the AirDrop protocol. They are however required to implement a mechanism allowing competing solutions to automatically trigger a prompt to install their own iOS apps, but the deadline for that isn't until next year and they have not yet shipped it.


opendrop works without asking Apple


The pro-age verification folks have been talking about ZKPs for years now. Here’s one of the legal proponents of the Texas law, and now General Counsel at the FCC, referencing ZKPs[1]. More sophisticated folks have been pitching actual implementations for a while.

Setting aside whether age verification is desirable or a net benefit, some of the discourse is colored by folks that want to make it as painful and controversial as possible so they don’t have to do it.

[1] https://americarenewing.com/issues/identity-on-the-internet-...


And yet the laws get passed with no working ZKP system in place. Telling.


Gershad — not sure it’s super active but seems like it still has a user base. https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/12/10977296/gershad-app-iran...


Not quite as clear cut. The EO triggers a national emergency under IEEPA, which is the basis of sanctions — so there is a well established legal underpinning. Unclear whether Microsoft has standing to challenge the designation of the ICC, and the courts give a lot of deference to the President on foreign affairs/national security. Microsoft is more “stuck” than “feckless” I think.


Same same. SMEX is based in Lebanon — (S)WANA is an obnoxious term that’s going around for MENA.


We don't know what any of these acronyms mean!


MENA - Middle East & North Africa

WANA - West Asia & North Africa

SMEX - "a non-profit that advocates for and advances human rights in digital spaces across West Asia and North Africa." (from their website)


"non-profit" doesn't mean "this guys are morally right and only conveys truths"

it just means that they don't pay taxes


"Arab countries"


This is an April fools joke.


Should have been Tesla instead.


Your general premise is valid, but the specific theory doesn’t fit the relationship between the merchants and the credit card companies. See the fight over the Durbin/Marshall swipe fees bill: http://merchantspaymentscoalition.com/merchants-support-sena...

But your point about support — eg reversibility and fraud prevention — is very valid. Credit cards aren’t merely transactions in databases, but a set of customers and services.


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