Iran<\/a>,\u201d said Amir, speaking this week, and adding that he had managed to build a system to give proxies to his friends.<\/p>\n\u201cThese links are a part of one of the app\u2019s features [\u2026] they route Telegram traffic from an internal server. Each of them does this for a few hours and then fails. So I constantly try to find new ones to send to my folks.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Iranian government shut down access to the internet during the war with Israel, accusing its adversary of exploiting the network for military purposes. Local sources told the Guardian no one had access to the internet except correspondents working for vetted foreign media.<\/p>\n
Domestic messaging apps continued to work, but young Iranians have little faith in their security.<\/p>\n
Amir said: \u201cWe have domestic apps, but they\u2019re bullshit. The government uses every opportunity it gets to spy on us, especially student leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, Amnesty International called on the authorities to lift the communications blackout, stating it \u201cprevents people from finding safe routes, accessing life-saving resources and staying informed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another student leader, Leila*, 22, who lives in Abbas Abad in north-central Tehran, said she only managed to reconnect during the shutdown after receiving help from abroad. \u201cMy boyfriend in Europe sent me configuration links via text. Without that I would still be completely cut off. The internet suddenly works for a few minutes here and there, but goes off before I can use any websites.\u201d<\/p>\n
The blackout not only severed contact with the outside world, but made life under Israeli bombardment even more difficult. \u201cIt\u2019s like being walled in,\u201d said Arash*, a student in Tehran, also speaking this week. \u201cWe\u2019ve lost access to each other, to independent news, to help. There\u2019s just state media and silence followed by the sounds of bombs.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Amir, the most frightening part was how the war is becoming normal. \u201cWe\u2019re starting to act like this is normal,\u201d he said, though \u201cwar is not normal\u201d. He said they now recognised shaking windows as air raids or explosions.<\/p>\n
While the war terrified him, the blackout added to his worries. \u201cThat\u2019s what erases us \u2026 makes us invisible. And still, we\u2019re here. Still trying to connect with the free world.\u201d<\/p>\n
* Names have been changed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amir* hasn\u2019t slept much in days. From his apartment in northern Tehran, the 23-year-old has spent his nights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[64,63,237,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-73570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}