Iranian Activists Get a Digital Boost in Their Struggle to Topple Regime

The Islamic Republic of Iran faces perhaps the greatest challenge to its authority yet as demands for freedom have spread beyond street protests and into the digital realm with hacks against the country’s nuclear agency and new efforts to unlock the internet inside the country.Iranians have been gathering in the street for more than a month now in mass protests ignited by the death of a young woman arrested for not wearing a hijab. Since the protests began in mid-September, unconfirmed reports from human rights groups outside Iran say that government forces have killed more than 240 people — many of them teenagers — and arrested more than 12,500.On Sunday, the Iranian government confirmed a hack on its nuclear agency, the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization. The hackers, known as Black Reward, have publicly associated themselves with the current unrest across the country.The group initially posted notice of its hack on Friday, when it demanded the release of political prisoners in exchange for keeping the 50 gigabytes of information under wraps. The blackmail attempt was unsuccessful and the information was published.The group says the information includes photos of the Russia-backed nuclear reactor at Bushehr, details pertaining to the plant’s operations, passports and visas of Iranian and Russian employees, and various contracts.The group says it released the information in support of the late Mahsa Amini, the young woman whose death in police custody sparked the protests, and “women, life, and freedom,” the rallying cry of the protesters.Meanwhile, less-savvy Iranians are looking to satellite technology to fan the flames of their fight amid internet restrictions by the government that threaten their movement. Activists have smuggled in Starlink receivers to evade government censors, Time Magazine reported.The receivers are part of a technology, produced by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, that uses satellites to evade blocks on the terrestrial internet.The internet has been a powerful tool for the activists to share images of the crackdown with the world, but using the internet inside Iran can be dangerous — if not impossible — for those seeking to challenge the government.The Iranian government has long censored and surveilled internet usage within the country, even shutting down the web entirely in 2019 amidst protests. Over the past month, the government has blocked access to Instagram, WhatsApp, and Skype — in addition to longer-standing blocks on Facebook and Twitter. The receivers, if used, would allow activists to communicate and organize amongst themselves — free of government surveillance — as well as broadcast their struggle to the world. Activation itself poses a challenge, however, as thousands of densely placed rooftop receivers are required to use Starlink over a large area, and the receivers would need to be installed without raising government eyebrows. The Starlink receivers have been a critical tool of the Ukrainian army in its fight against the Russian invasion.The Iranian activists denied to Time the involvement of the American government in procuring the Starlink receivers, but CNN reported Saturday that the Biden administration has been in talks with Mr. Musk about setting up receivers within the Islamic Republic.The protests have provoked a change in the administration’s approach to Iran. In 2020, President Biden said he saw a renewed nuclear deal with Iran as the “best way to achieve… stability in the region.”The White House admitted last week such a deal with Iran was unlikely, however, and President Biden emphasized his support for the protests. His press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said that “the door for diplomacy will always remain open.”The pressure to step away from the negotiation table has mounted from American citizens as well.Thousands of American demonstrators took to the streets in solidarity with the Iranian protests over the weekend. On Saturday, sympathizers rallied at Washington, D.C. and the unofficial capital of the Iranian-American community, Los Angeles.On Saturday, the U.S. special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, tweeted about the protests. “Marchers in Washington and cities around the world are showing their support for the Iranian people, who continue to peacefully demonstrate for their government to respect their dignity and human rights,” Mr. Malley wrote.His statement was derided as not hard enough on the regime, however. Many respondents have called for a change in policy — one that includes American support for regime change. A leading Iranian activist now based in America, Masih Alinejad, called for Mr. Malley’s dismissal on Sunday after his post.“Iranians are facing guns and bullets inside the country to end a gender apartheid regime,” Ms. Alinejad tweeted. “They never asked the government to ‘respect’ them. They are clearly shouting in the streets that the Islamic republic must be gone.”

Iranian Activists Get a Digital Boost in Their Struggle to Topple Regime

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