Iran: friend or foe? Or something else?

[donttread]

Iran: friend or foe? Or something else? RealClear World picked out a couple of editorials that discuss what Iran means to the world today.

The NYTs says that Iran matters most to the West. Basically, that Iran is the natural counter to militant Sunni Islam. The author supports a nuclear deal with Iran.



The Sydney Morning Herald maintains that Iran is as dangerous to Western interests as the Islamic State is.

I'd say niether.

[waltky]

48 Million Smartphones make a difference...

One Difference Between 2009 vs 2018 Iran Protests? 48 Million Smartphones
January 03, 2018 — In 2009, the world watched as Iranians marching in the streets turned to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to organize and share information.

The technology-assisted protests were dubbed the first “Twitter revolution." Flash forward to 2018 and technology again is playing a role in demonstrations sweeping cities across Iran. But much has changed in the intervening years when it comes to the communication tools used by Iranian citizens for organizing and publicizing protests.

Here are some of the main changes:

1. The rise of smartphones has brought more Iranians on to the internet

In 2009, fewer than 15 percent of Iranians had internet access, according to the World Bank. While Twitter was used to get news of the protests out to the world, it is unclear how much of a role it or any service played to help organize political actions. Word of mouth, in some accounts, as well as SMS messaging over cellphones (and just 30 percent of Iranians owned a cell phone) played a larger role than internet services. Now, with the advent of smartphones in Iran - about half of Iranians, or 48 million people, have smartphones. More than 50 percent of Iranians are online.

People protest near the university of Tehran, Iran, Dec. 30, 2017 in this picture obtained from social media.

2. An explosion in messaging options

In 2009, Facebook and Twitter were relatively new with Iranians accessing the services mostly on their desktop computers. As the 2009 protests unfolded, the Obama administration asked Twitter to delay an update that would have taken the service offline to allow Iranians to continue to use it. Now, Iranian citizens have a number of ways of receiving and sending messages – straight from the device they carry in their pockets.

Of these newer services, the most popular in Iran is Telegram, an instant messaging service that offers encrypted secret chats and channels, where people discuss news and current events. By one count, more than 100,000 Iranian channels are on Telegram. Facebook’s Instagram is the second most popular service. “Telegram channels are frequently used for organizing protests and for sharing political opinion,” said Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Supporters of the Iranian opposition movement wear green during the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in the holy city of Qom

As the protests continued, the Iranian government shut down Telegram and Instagram. But other messaging apps give users options. “Regime in Iran can shut down signal, telegram, etc., but differently from 2009, the whole country is connected and they have a long list of other messaging apps to use,” tweeted Jared Cohen, founder and chief executive of Jigsaw, an Alphabet company, and a senior fellow on the Council of Foreign Relations. “This time around, it's much harder to win a game of technology wack-a-mole.” And indeed, the head of Telegram took to Twitter on Tuesday to suggest users go to Whatsapp, which “remains fully accessible in Iran.”

3. Wider adoption of anti-filtering tools

[Ransom]

I'd say niether.

When the correct answer is both. The Iranian regime of course a foe. Iranians themselves would probably be open to the West.

But you were only 180 degrees wrong, so.....keep throwing em out here.