Comments on: How to Help Bring Down Iranian State-Run Media

By: Teddy Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:39:30 +0000

The Iranian regime is always going to blame the U.S.A. and Britain and “the West” for whatever problems they have. Creating chaos and confusion by hacking the government web sites can only hurt the regime, which is rounding up, torturing and murdering innocents as I type. Hack their sites. Let Obama walk softly.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:47:59 +0000

Whatever could possibly motivate someone to speak out against crashing the Iranian government’s web sites? Is it megalomania?

The world has too many lawyers!

By: Gray

Gray — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:54:14 +0000

Well, there’s of course also a broader point, beyond the question of legality. Imho foreign interference in Iranian affairs at theis point is not helpful, and even can seriously backfire. See, the ayatollahs would love to be able to point fingers at the west for setting up the protests and manipulating the masses! So, don’t give them any evidence they could use to divert attention from their own failures! And respect the courage and the determination of the Iranian people, bravely protesting for changes despite the very real danger for their lives, by not making it look as if they simply are the pawns of the west.

Disrupting Iranian media would only be a minor inconvenience for the regime, but may provide the ayatollahs with an argument for shutting down even more communication channels. I understand the desire to do something to help the protesters, but beware of all consequences of your actions! Sry, but cyberterrorism really isn’t helpful at all

By: CincyCapell

CincyCapell — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:21:22 +0000

Here are links to other Iranian government sites, which can be useful for “legal” purposes only, of course:

http://www.parstimes.com/gov_iran.html

By: Stephan Tawney

Stephan Tawney — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:25:59 +0000

Many thousands of Americans, including prominent ones in the political community, were providing instructions on Twitter last evening on how to carry out the attacks.

The Obama Administration’s Justice Department would have to pursue charges against thousands of its own people who were attempting to take down the state-run propaganda websites of a State Department-designated state sponsor of terror.

My concern is more moral than legal in the recommendation.

By: Gray

Gray — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:44:42 +0000

One other point: You seem to see the legal danger in this, too, because you carefully phrase you’re “not officially recommending an attack on the state-run news websites in Iran”. Uh huh. Now, wouldn’t it be a good idea to inform your readers, too, about the potential legal consequences of misusing page reboot for such a cyberattack? And if you’re not sure about the law, wouldn’t it be better not to risk leading your readers into trouble?

Just sayin…

By: Gray

Gray — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:35:28 +0000

Well, I’m against cyberterror in any form. Calling for DOS attacks could be illegal under US law and that of many other countries, even if they’re “only” used against Iran’s horrible regime.

What’s on the other side to outweigh this? Eleminating the information advantage the established Iranian media has now? Will that really help the opposition, or will it just result in even more irresponsible rumours heating up the tension? And doesn’t this give the ayatollahs an easy argument for “proving” that the riots are fueled by the west? Looks like a dangerous game to me, that could easily backfire…
:-/