PEOPLE POWER: How Millions of Iranians Are Evading the Internet Censors.

Authorities in Tehran have ratcheted up their policing of the internet in the past week and a half, part of an attempt to stamp out the most far-reaching protests in Iran since 2009.

But the crackdown is driving millions of Iranians to tech tools that can help them evade censors, according to activists and developers of the tools. Some of the tools were attracting three or four times more unique users a day than they were before the internet crackdown, potentially weakening government efforts to control access to information online.

“By the time they wake up, the government will have lost control of the internet,” said Mehdi Yahyanejad, executive director of NetFreedom Pioneers, a California-based technology nonprofit that largely focuses on Iran and develops educational and freedom of information tools.

Meanwhile, President Trump’s handpicked FBI director insisted just yesterday that strong encryption is a “major public safety issue” requiring some kind of government backdoor.

Whatever keys we hand to Washington will be in the Tehran’s hands (or the Kremlin’s, Beijing’s, etc.) in less time than it takes to download a bootleg copy of The Last Jedi.