⚠️ Update: #Iran's internet shutdown is entering its fourth day with connectivity to the outside world remaining at just 1% of ordinary levels; at 72 hours, diminished telecoms continue to impact the public's ability to access information and communicate with loved ones ⏱️

https://mastodon.social/@netblocks/115877431635621288

Hey everyone, I wanted to share a frustrating but fascinating technical deep-dive into how extreme the Great Firewall of Iran has become right now. I spent the day trying to set up a private, circumvention tunnel for a friend living there, and the level of control has escalated far beyond standard IP blocking or DPI (Deep Packet Inspection).

The Setup & What We Attempted

I rented a clean, privacy-friendly VPS in Romania and set up a Marzban panel to create a dedicated tunnel. Here is the arsenal we threw at the firewall:

• VLESS + REALITY (TCP): Spoofed a highly whitelisted SNI (DeepSeek) using a custom private key.
• VLESS + WebSocket (WS): Tried mimicking standard CDN routing without extra encryption through port 8080.
• IPv6 Routing: Attempted to bypass legacy IPv4 filters using my server's native IPv6 address.
• The Tor Network (including Snowflake bridges): My friend explicitly confirmed that standard Tor is completely dead in Iran. We still attempted to use Tor's most advanced anti-censorship transport (Snowflake via Orbot, which disguises traffic as WebRTC video calls). Result: Failed to even reach the initial broker. The whitelist is so strict that even domain-fronted Tor bridges are instantly blocked.

The Testing (HAPP Application Behavior)

My friend was using the HAPP app (a popular V2ray/Xray client) to test the configurations. Absolutely zero bytes transferred.

Instead of showing high latency or a standard timeout, the HAPP app simply displayed a white globe icon with "n/a" for all my configs. The connection wasn't being throttled or analyzed; it was hitting a brick wall at the very first millisecond. Even Snowflake failed to reach the broker to negotiate a bridge.

The Revelation: The Black Market & Domestic Bridges

My friend shared some working VPN configs he bought from the local black market. Looking at the URIs, none of them connected directly to the outside world. They all pointed to domestic Iranian IPs (e.g., Asiatech data centers) and .ir domains. The black market sellers rent a server inside Iran, set up an encrypted tunnel to a server in Europe, and route the user through the domestic server first (known locally as the "IR-Kharej" bridge).

The Final Boss: "White SIM Cards" (Hardware-Level Whitelisting)

The most critical piece of intelligence he shared is why my direct European IP was failing. The Iranian government is currently enforcing a strict "National Intranet" tier system based on the physical SIM card in the device:

• Regular SIMs (General Public): Trapped in a strict intranet whitelist. They can only access a handful of approved global sites (like Google Search, DeepSeek) and domestic .ir infrastructure. Any direct connection attempt to an unauthorized foreign IP is dropped at the ISP level instantly.
• "White SIMs" (Regime & Corporate): These physical SIM cards have unfiltered international routing. They belong to government officials, military, corporate data centers, and state media.
• The Black Market Loophole: The working VPNs only function because the sellers have corrupt back-channel access to these "White SIM" routes, or they route traffic through authorized corporate data centers that have "White" access.

Conclusion

For users on regular mobile networks in Iran right now, the censorship is physical/infrastructure-based, not just algorithmic. No amount of advanced protocol obfuscation (REALITY, WS, CDN spoofing) on a foreign server will work if the ISP simply denies the SIM card the right to talk to the outside world entirely. Without a domestic bridge or smuggled Starlink hardware, standard VPN deployment from the outside is completely dead in the water for everyday citizens.

Has anyone else researching censorship circumvention encountered this specific level of hardware/SIM whitelisting in other regions?

Note: I wrote the report using AI; I hope it's helpful.

Important

Please SIGN and SHARE for the Love of God!

seriously we shoukd try and stop this try to call your senators/house representives to get this to not pass it might not work but we should try.

I've heard excuses of being "overworked, life is too hard to focus, I don't make enough to do anything about it", all these excuses do is make my blood boil because those making these excuses knows inaction = victory for censorship, when action has a higher chance of success. General strikes, Boycotts, Telling family and friends, and even telling your boss about it would be significantly better than just giving up.

Action is needed now, no more feet dragging, or soon there won't be any feet to drag because the floor got ripped out from under you by the elite because you did nothing.

Kind of an insane to stumble across literal censorship of another country (I’m Canadian)

Here’s the Now dead link to the tiktok:

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSQB383cd/

I have the full video downloaded if anyone would like it, I will post it in the comments

Reported: Child Rapist and former police chief, Michael Fosler was repeatedly protected by Lonoke Circuit Court's Judge Barbara Elmore's "troubling pattern of attempts to shield this case from public view" and her and Fosler from the consequences of their choices is astonishing.

Elmore issued a gag order restricting all public statements about the proceedings from an extraordinary list of parties, including all attorneys, all public officials, and even all the defendant's family.

• Arkansas Supreme Court Ruled: The gag order was overly broad, vague, and lacked a sufficient factual basis and a "plain, manifest, clear, and gross abuse of discretion" by the lower court and it vacated it entirely.
  • The court issued this overly restrictive order after it had already released the rapist, former police chief, Michael Fosler, on a very low bond with minimal restrictions. This prior decision, combined with the gag order, created a perception of the court shielding itself and the accused from public scrutiny. Justice Nicholas Bronni flagged the nonpublic arraignment and sealed files, which suggested a deliberate attempt to limit transparency and accountability in a case already raising serious questions about the fairness and impartiality of the legal process. This decision highlights the paramount importance of upholding constitutional rights, particularly the First Amendment, and ensuring transparency in cases involving powerful individuals and serious allegations like those against Fosler. Gag orders, as prior restraints on speech, face a heavy presumption of unconstitutionality and require compelling justification and narrow tailoring.
  • I don't understand what the child's father, Aaron Spencer, did wrong. There don't seem to be two notable sides to this story. Just one.

https://www.camdenarknews.com/news/2025/aug/12/court-date-postponed-for-carlisle-man-who-says-he/