Monday, June 15, 2009

Partly Blocked

I just noticed that when I try to open my post about Mohammad Ali Fardin, I get the infamous "Access to this website is blocked" message (that's a loose translation of the Persian message). It's weird. I mean I've written worst things about the regime and none of my other posts are blocked. I thought that this might be because of a "forbidden word" in the URL (weird blocking cases can happen when a URL has forbidden words in it), but this doesn't seem to be the case since I can view the page in Google cache. My only conclusion is that that single page for some reason has been blocked.

Hooray! I finally pissed them off. It won't be long they will be coming to my door to arrest me. Time to go into hiding!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm having momentary access problems to a few sites here and there, though they seem to resolve once I refresh.

Have you been able to connect to other bloggers to keep up with the various proxy sites that are out there?

Homayoon said...

I'm currently using http://share4ever.info/ to access filtered content, but if you're in the US then I don't guess a proxy is going to help you access websites.

Anonymous said...

I was more curious, than otherwise. I know that there are several Internet users outside of Iran that are trying to keep open various lines of communication. For example, Twitter's feed has different proxies being broadcast almost every screen.

The established US media and political structure is being very wary of commenting on the current situation. However, there is a common-people surge of interest that is forcing them to address what is happening, and explain it to those without such access.

Are cell phones and other services still shut down?

Homayoon said...

Cell phones work for calling people right now, though I hear there has been intermittent disconnections in some places but I cannot be sure of that since I don't use my cell very often, not for calling at least. The SMS service, however, is still shut down completely.

Homayoon said...

I should also add that the Internet connections become extremely slow from time to time. It is observed that at those times there is a large amount of packet loss (around 45%) which can be easily done by the government since all ISPs have to obtain their Internet links from the state-owned telecommunications company.

Anonymous said...

Twitter has announced that they are delaying a scheduled down-time to some point during Iran's evening. The events are finally being given more detailed discussion on the mainstream news, and politicians are beginning to talk more openly of their opinions for the circumstances.

Other updates state that shootings have started, with various dead at either rallies or large groups of peoples. On the other hand, there are reports that some Revolutionary Guard have been arrested by the government for unaccounted reasons. It's being assumed that they wanted to support the protestors.

Be safe.

Homayoon said...

For some reason I'm having difficulty posting comments. I can post to my blog easily, but the comment page works for me like only once a day.

Several kills have been confirmed by the regime, including the seven people shot to death during Monday's peaceful protests by Basij's "volunteer" paramilitary forces, although the state run media has changed the facts considerably, claiming the killed people were a bunch of "thugs" who attacked a military facility to vandalize public property.

There has many more killings and injuries, though. There's talk of 12 students killed in University of Tehran dormitories and there has been killings in Esfahan and Shiraz, too. A friend of mine also confirmed that her friend's brother has been shot to death. Horrible.

What I'm sure about, is that if this series of protests stop or fail in anyway, the consequences can be much graver. I can imagine thousands of people arrested and executed on charges like "threatening national security" and the regime will oppress people so forcefully that even the dark days of two decades ago would not be comparable to it.