US 'Free Speech' Admirers Silent on Tehran's Internet Blackout
The story details Iran's 'sophisticated campaign' to crush dissent via internet blackouts, echoing a global lament for 'basic freedoms.' What's consistently obscured by such narratives is the Western playbook for controlling 'national and global narratives,' especially concerning its allies. When Israel routinely disrupts communications to Gaza—documented by numerous human rights groups—mainstream
cries of 'atrocity' are curiously muted. One might even wonder if such digital control is only 'tyrannical' when it’s not executed by a U.S. ally receiving billions in aid. This selective outrage conveniently ignores that some of the same U.S. politicians condemning Tehran's actions are simultaneously approving vast military aid to regimes that employ similar, if more refined, methods of
information warfare and control. For instance, Senator Lindsey Graham, a vocal critic of Iranian crackdowns, championed a bill to allocate $14.5 billion in military aid to Israel just last year. Critics might charitably suggest this is a principled stand against oppression, or less charitably, a geopolitical double standard funded by the very groups that benefit from maintaining such distinctions.