Protests in Iran: State-run live TV hacked by protesters

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63188795

242 40 4 years ago

bbc.co.uk

Apart from the usual "this is something important that is happening" (which is not quite HN "intellectual curiosity" territory, what is striking is the use of what I assume is a V for Vendetta mask - with Red and Green daubing.

How culture spreads is ... fascinating.

jagaerglad• 4 years ago

That is like ...nothing, then you have like no idea how omnipresent this type of pop culture is (for good or for worse). Of course iranians watch these types of movies and of course an iranian hacker would be aware of the mask symbolism

GekkePrutser• 4 years ago

These masks are also made by the Chinese in the billions and available in any "Bazar" for very cheap so they're a cheap way to obscure your identity :)

Not saying this is the case here (for TV this is probably well considered and it's not the standard Chinese mask which is the 'smiling' version) but there might be more than one explanation especially for seeing them on the street during protests.

master_crab• 4 years ago

The genesis may have been “V for Vendetta” but I believe Anonymous used a similar mask and it’s possible the hacker/s are aware of that.

squarefoot• 4 years ago

Anonymous, and many other unrelated protesters, used the V for Vendetta mask when protesting against Scientology not just as a symbol but rather because of the cult..er church well known tactics of harassing anyone who opposes them. They usually followed protesters until they put the mask off so they or their car license plate could be photographed easing the identification.

system16• 4 years ago

Maybe that was the intention but it doesn't really look like a Guy Fawkes mask at all though, other than being a white face mask. Eyebrows and eye cut-outs are different, it has a full beard, it's not a v-shaped face, etc.

mgdlbp• 4 years ago

The red and green is just the Iranian flag though. What culture were you thinking of? Suiseiseki?

photochemsyn• 4 years ago

Given the recent split between the USA and Saudi Arabia over crude oil production targets, I wouldn't be surprised to see similar hacking of Saudi news feeds by 'domestic protestors' and a new US State Department focus on 'human rights and democratic reforms in the repressive Saudi dictatorship' coming up pretty quickly.

This would be a radical shift from US behavior during the Arab Spring, when the USA gave a wink and a nod to Saudi tanks rolling into Bahrain to crush the pro-democracy protests there.

[edit] Here's a story about Saudi Arabia, hijabs, and death threats to women (2016). Let the revolutions begin!

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1251171/saudis-call-execution-w...

"A woman in Saudi Arabia has sparked outrage after posting a photo of herself on Twitter without an abaya or hijab, and is now facing calls for her execution."

fritztastic2• 4 years ago

This is a very simplistic view of the tensions in the region, which have been ongoing for decades. Just as the US has reason to retaliate against Saudi Arabia, many other places could also have reasons to push the ruling family out of power and gain influence.

It also fails to account for the autonomy of the people there. Is it really so hard to believe that they are rebelling against authoritarianism?

Even if there is an interest to empower the people to oust the regime, wouldn't it be fomenting on already existing unhappiness?

Interestingly, the same can be said of unrest anywhere- undoubtedly the agendas of several states will always align with weakening their competitors/adversaries.

When you consider the things everyday people care about and strive for, it can be argued that any party interested in destabilizing another nation would play to those aspirations in such a way as to further their control- this is true of almost everywhere, it is not exclusive to any one people or any one institution, and it can be seen in every region. In any given place, if you take a close look, there are varying levels of influence from foreign powers- often with the goal to secure economic goals or obtain natural resources.

avgcorrection3• 4 years ago

Even if there is an interest to empower the people to oust the regime, wouldn't it be fomenting on already existing unhappiness?

Out of all the nations on Earth, perhaps a majority of them have some kind of discontent among the population. Then, with this blank cheque being given, the nations with the most powerful intel agencies can empower the ones they want into full-blown protests.

The conspiracy theory that Russia influenced the two recent American presidential elections naturally come to mind. If that was the case—and I don’t doubt that they might have invested a small pittance into FB ads—then they were surely just building on existing unhappiness, as Trump supporters are too numerous to all be sleeper agents of the waning super power that is Russia.

unity10013• 4 years ago

This is a very simplistic view of the tensions in the region

That is a very simplistic, and correct view of how the US manipulates such tensions.

There are many of us international HNers, whose countries suffered multiple US backed coups or color revolutions, and even worse, whose grassroots popular movements were co-opted and subverted by the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_(Polish_trade_union...

So much that even the 'people's movement', Solidarity in Poland, that was the 'trade union' movement that overthrow their government, was CIA funded and organized. The same thing has been a staple of daily life in Middle East since 1960s, when CIA decided to fund and use Islamist groups.

somenameforme• 4 years ago

You're absolutely right it's been going on for decades, but I think looking into that history is also telling. In 1953 Iran was a relatively secular and democratic nation that had generally positive, though flagging, relations with the West. Then their leader decided to reduce US/UK control over his country's oil assets. So of course we had to bring democracy to them. But since they already had a democracy, autocracy would have to do instead. [1]

We staged a coup, overthrew their democracy, and installed an extremely unpopular puppet dictator and monarch. 26 years later in 1979 there was another revolution, except this one was carried out by the people of Iran, and not the CIA. The puppet (still ruling from 1953 interestingly) was overthrown, and in his place an Islamic theocracy was created. And since then it's invariably been headed by leaders that, for some reason, haven't been especially fond of the West - and frequently imply we're up to shenanigans. That scenario continues to this day.

Ultimately I no longer really believe that we deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to black ops types scenarios. We've turned what should be a sort of last resort act of subterfuge into what increasingly seems to be a front-line approach to international relations. The most bizarre part is that these shenanigans never even really seem to achieve anything. Iran just being one example of going black ops to undermine one enemy, only to create one 10x more deadly, dangerous, and hostile than the former.

All we really seem to be achieving is the fast-tracking of WW3.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution

anigbrowl• 4 years ago

No, GP is a legit comment. Everything you say about Iran is also true of Saudi Arabia (in the sense of the ruling regime being autocratic and oppressive) but it's expedient for the establishment in the US to condemn one regime and support the other.

avgcorrection3• 4 years ago

Perhaps. But these things are not signs of that since the American government has hated the Iranian government for a long time.

It would be much more suspicious if the US govt. started to support the Iranian govt. all of a sudden.

boomboomsubban• 4 years ago

You don't think they'd try to change a government they've hated for a long time? I would also find a sudden 180 on Iran suspicious, but also would not be surprised if any Iranian opposition group had US support.

ProjectArcturis• 4 years ago

The basic deal between the US and SA is, in exchange for supplying the global oil market, the US will overlook SA's dictatorship, human rights abuses, and involvement in 9/11, and will supply them with weapons. If SA stops upholding its side of the deal, I would expect the Arab Spring would suddenly find its way to SA. Or, perhaps first, the US would support a coup against MBS to replace him with a more compliant member of the House of Said.

futhey• 4 years ago

People read too much into the recent production target cuts. An important thing to consider is that OPEC+ has been failing to meet their targets by about the same amount for several months now, and most experts seem to believe they lack capacity, not the will to produce.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/opec-mi...

nayaketo• 4 years ago

Don't know about CIA conspiracies but I'm sure Saudi Arabians will protest Hijab mandates one day. Freedom is amazing and every human craves it at some level.

uquercia• 4 years ago

Freedom is amazing , true. But I am afraid you could be over optimistic saying that everyone craves it. Unfortunately many people have short-term goals that are more important for them than freedom…

seer-zig3• 4 years ago

The freedom to get naked in the streets yeah? Thanks but no thanks.

You’re correct that our goals and culture that promotes purity and piety is more important than what the secular West defines as “freedom”

seer-zig3• 4 years ago

Ah yes, the typical astounding secular definition of freedom, equating it with nakedness and vices. I’ll tell you something, the vast majority of the Saudis are proud of the Hijab and their Islamic faith that promotes purity and decency. We don’t want the western definition of “freedom” thank you very much, we’ve seen where it leads

pvaldes• 4 years ago

It leads to people showing the hair in their heads, that is the normal way in our species. Including the majority of the muslim population and the majority of the human population.

If you think this is the same as being naked in public or that women's hair is impure, well... You live in a very sad place and deserve compassion. It really sucks to be you, but your pain is self-inflicted.

Enjoying the feminine grace and beauty is one of the greatest pleasures of being alive. Imagine yourself sit in a caffee three months from now watching by the first time an endless stream of smiling happy, "naked" women. If this image don't puts a smile in your heart, then something terrible must had happened to you

pdntspa• 4 years ago

How does GP's statement have anything to do with "nakedness" and "vices". Those appear to be your words, dude.

Besides, the woman that was killed in custody that started this whole mess in Iran was hardly "naked", quite far from it.

It's not the west's fault that people lack so much self-control they can't handle anything but a hijab. In my opinion that speaks incredibly poorly, if anything that means folks shold spend more time looking inward than foolishly crying out for divine protection

Moralism is far more responsible for a society's ills than "decadence" ever will be

dang2• 4 years ago

You posted dozens of flamewar comments in this thread. That's extreme, and you have a history of doing it and ignoring our requests to stop. I've therefore banned this account as well as some others. Please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with. Religious flamewars are not what this site is for.

Frankly, all the other commenters who jumped straight into the pit of hell with you are more responsible than you are, but we can't have people abusing HN this egregiously.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

dang2• 4 years ago

Please don't take HN threads on generic flamewar tangents. This one went straight to hell, which is the opposite of what we're going for here.

Religious flamewar is particularly hellish and particularly avoidable. Let's avoid it.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33141230.

eklapm• 4 years ago

Are those the same "protesters" who hacked the Iranian nuclear program with Stuxnet by any chance?

uni_rule• 4 years ago

Doubt it. The NSA would have way better production value than that, lol.

Protests in Iran: State-run live TV hacked by protesters

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