Inside the Stealth Satellite Lifeline Beating Iran’s Internet Blackout
spectrum.ieee.org
Files hidden in satellite TV broadcasts keep information flowing
  • DagwoodIII@piefed.socialEnglish
    2 hours

    Historical note.

    Back in the day, the Shah wouldn’t let people read radical Muslim newspapers.

    The Muslims got around that by making cassette recordings of their speeches which would be played, re-recorded, and passed hand to hand.

    Just funny that the people who were censored in the past are censors now.

  • alakey@piefed.socialEnglish
    3 hours

    The title is overly optimistic imo. This is more of a life support system for a comatose patient. The work done is great and keeps some people informed and provided with at least some international news and tools, but this is far from defeating the internet blackout.

    I’m also somewhat surprised iran isn’t shooting down the satellites. The article mentions previous full jamming practices were stopped in fear of sanctions, but not like that’s a concern anymore, especially considering iran is in russia’s little fascist club.

    To the people living in the rest of the world - start taking ID verification threat seriously before this is your reality where the only outside news you get is from a USB stick you buy on a shady open market for 30 bucks from a guy who has a satellite dish out in the mountains.

  • queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    6 hours

    We need to make it impossible for any group (including governments and corporations) to turn off the internet for another group of people. Everyone deserves to be able to tell the world what’s going on in their lives. Especially if what’s going on is real bad.

  • Bloefz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6 hours

    Hmm a satellite dish is pretty hard to hide because it needs to be fairly big, pointed at a specific known point in the sky and has to have good visibility of the sky.

    This doesn’t make it ideal for censorship avoidance because a hostile regime can arrest everyone with a dish.

    I applaud what they’re doing doing though but it’s not without risk for the receivers.

    We had this satellite tech too 20-30 years ago. People without broadband could use dialup to request large files and they’d be streamed through satellite through the night. It was too high latency to use interactively but for a receive-only solution of a curated package it’s pretty good. Just too bad the antennas are so easy to spot. Camouflaged ones exist but I don’t think they are available at Iran-friendly price points.

    • fullsquare@awful.systemsEnglish
      5 hours

      there are ways. for example, put a fake hot water barrel on the roof, made from fiberglass or polypropylene or what have you, but not metal, and put dish inside, or in any variety of inconspicuous containers or boxes made from plastic or wood or fabric. some other antennas can be camouflaged as fake chimneys or gutters or water piping or many other things

      • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.spaceEnglish
        3 hours

        Aircraft with millimetre-wave radar could detect them easily. And under a totalitarian regime like Iran, mere possession would be a capital crime.

        • fullsquare@awful.systemsEnglish
          26 minutes

          that mmwave radar would have to be attached to a drone, because their manned aircraft are unbelievably obsolete. it means smaller size meaning low resolution, and as starlink emits pinpointing them would be very easy when active, much easier than any passive sat dish, and starlink is still in use. i’ve seen some advice on hiding starlink that includes turning off starlink wifi and using wired connection, because irgc is looking for 2.4 ghz signal (from ground?) and not for 14-ish ghz uplink, so they probably dont have a lot of flying ew/radars

          i’m not saying that iranian air force has definitely none of that, but i would be decently surprised if they do have more than 2