Al-Jazirah, Saudi Arabia, November 30
The internet is now the space through which rebels and protesters manage most of their coordination efforts, and its shutting down means that the demonstrators are deprived of their most important tactics in the face of adversity from the authorities. We’ve first witnessed this during the Iraqi revolution, but international pressure thankfully forced the Iraqi authorities to return internet connectivity to the country. The Iranian revolution and protests over high fuel prices were massive uprisings, which spread to almost all Iranian territory. The regime was only able to crush these demonstrations when it began shutting down the World Wide Web. However, there are some indications that protests are continuing to take place in some cities adjacent to the border at the time of this writing, as confirmed by the spokespersons of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran. The difficult problem for the mullah regime is that it’s now in conflict with technology. Their success in shutting down connectivity in the Iranian space does not mean that they will be able to block this medium forever. More Iranians are choosing to connect to the internet through satellite, which eliminates the ability of the state to monitor its citizens’ activity. Needless to say, the mullah regime in Iran is a highly repressive regime that couldn’t care less for the welfare of its people. The Iranian opposition is now in the process of searching for a leader that would guide the masses from within, with the hope of recreating the 1979 protests against the Shah. Therefore, I am sure that the increasing prevalence of satellite connection will be the first step toward the fall of the regime unless it adapts to these technological changes and finds a way to tamper with it as well. The last hope the mullahs have is that President Trump will be defeated in the presidential election and that a Democrat president would save them from their economic crisis. However, if President Trump wins in the upcoming election, the mullah regime is a done deal. –Muhammad Al-Sheikh (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)