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Comment by Iv | Hacker News Reader

Am I the only one to see this as a positive side effect of sanctions?

Now Iranians have a legitimate reason to use TOR: bypassing sanctions. Turns out it allows them to bypass censorship as well and brings more people into the Tor network.

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The user experience on Tor is not great at the best of times. I can't imagine trying to do something like `docker pull` or `npm install` over it, let alone technical research.

Having tried to use a censored internet in China, I suspect it beats the alternative.

I doubt that they use Tor. First Iranian I have talked with after airport security simply shown as VPN app to use that works. I have used SSH tunnel without problems. Censorship is quite weak in Iran and Tor is not necessary.

It's only weak if you have access to a credit card and are able to pay for a VPS or VPN abroad. If you're trying to bypass it using only free(as in beer) tools, it's quite effective as clearly shown by the article.

I was answering to Iv comment that people in Iran will find Tor. That's not the case from my experience while I was traveling in Iran last year. People simply use free VPNs.

The article mentions Tor

Article is about developers.

Plus I have never understood why people assumed it was safe from the government. You are making a credit card transaction with your name on it and associate it with a named account! You never know who is behind a VPN company. If I were a state censor I'd make sure to have several cheap and reliable VPNs accessible to the locals and just make a list of what they are doing with it.

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