The App Destroying Iran's Currency (foreignpolicy.com) 83
Iranians are using the messaging app Telegram to spread fake news about the rial -- and make a profit for themselves. From a report: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani owes his re-election in large part to the messaging app Telegram. During Iran's 2017 presidential election, Iranians relied on the app as a rare source of uncensored news about the race, in which Rouhani was not the candidate most favored by hard-liners. Just one year later, Telegram may end up becoming Rouhani's downfall. The app is at the center of Iran's accelerating currency crash.
The Iranian rial was generally acknowledged to have been on a stable path until May, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited the Iran nuclear deal. Prior to the U.S. withdrawal, one U.S. dollar was worth around 37,000 rials; immediately afterwards, a single dollar jumped to around 44,000 rials. The rial has continued to slump ever since, dropping to 50,000 to the dollar, and then 80,000 rials, and then 190,000 during Rouhani's speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September. Right now, it is at 120,500 rials. But it isn't just U.S. sanctions and the fundamental weaknesses of the Iranian economy that have contributed to Iran's currency freefall. It's also the deliberate circulation of rumors and fake news on Telegram by Iranian currency traders and middlemen out to make a profit.
The Iranian rial was generally acknowledged to have been on a stable path until May, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited the Iran nuclear deal. Prior to the U.S. withdrawal, one U.S. dollar was worth around 37,000 rials; immediately afterwards, a single dollar jumped to around 44,000 rials. The rial has continued to slump ever since, dropping to 50,000 to the dollar, and then 80,000 rials, and then 190,000 during Rouhani's speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September. Right now, it is at 120,500 rials. But it isn't just U.S. sanctions and the fundamental weaknesses of the Iranian economy that have contributed to Iran's currency freefall. It's also the deliberate circulation of rumors and fake news on Telegram by Iranian currency traders and middlemen out to make a profit.
Donald Trump upset (Score:3, Funny)
âoeThis is an outrage! I was going to destroy that currency!â
rial news (Score:5, Funny)
Re:rial news (Score:4, Interesting)
I know you're joking, but I'll provide a serious response nevertheless.
Iranians don't really use Rial when discussing prices. They use Toman. 1 million Rial equals 100.000 Toman, which is mostly expressed as "100". So 10USD would be "120". They definitely do not consider themselves millionaires, but rather victims of petty fights between their own and US/Saudi/Israeli politicians.
Nevertheless, going to an exchange office in Iran is an interesting experience. 100USD or 100EUR goes a long way in the country and you do need a bag to hold all the local notes, because it definitely will not fit in your wallet.
At gas stations attendants walk around with a big wad of bills in their hand for change, even though gas in many places is only 0.10USD / liter.
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Many of those date back to wartime and terrorism had better press in the 20th century than in the 21st (for obvious reason)
Now what we know what the French, UK, US, Saudi, Israel plotted against them I have trouble blaming them more than necessary. Aforementioned countries used state-sponsored terrorism against Iran (the MeK), spent billions instructing Wahabbi/Salafi (religion created by Saudi Arabia) to exterminate all Shia (engineered a genocide), spent billions arming them, paying them and pouring them
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Fake news is spreading information to deceive people.
Rival news is spreading information to give a different view point and share additional information.
The problem is for the average citizen it is hard to find the difference. As Fake news is compelling as it is often telling you what you want to hear. (often the Other is the cause of your problems) "People from other countries are taking your job!".
vs Rival news which often gives more information which is difficult to process and may mean you are wrong. (
Brazil (Score:2)
If you want Real currency you have to go to Brazil.
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Either too soon or too late. About $3-4k seems like a reasonable target for bitcoin once the get rich quick speculators withdraw. Good riddance too, all they do is destabilize the currency.
Re: Switch to bitcoin (Score:2)
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If it continues to drop, it will collapse. Currently, the search "what is the cost of mining bitcoin" on google says that the cost of mining a bitcoin in the US is around $4750, depending on your cost of electricity. Venezuela and many Middle East and nearby countries have costs of half as much, but there are only a couple of dozen where the current cost makes it feasible long term unless something changes. After all, if the cost drops below the cost of electricity, then the miners that help transactions be
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After all, if the cost drops below the cost of electricity, then the miners that help transactions be completed should eventually quit, destroying the processing network.
That wouldn't destroy the processing network.
Shitposting (Score:1)
Intersting that slashdot has taken up shitposting to skip the middle-man. The story has one link, which leads back to this slashdot page.
On the story I think the US sanctions might have somewhat more to do with the currency value than a few people on Telegram.
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The story link is to the right of the summary headline, up in the green space.
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Fundemental weakness (Score:2)
"But it isn't just U.S. sanctions and the fundamental weaknesses of the Iranian economy..."
What's this "fundamental weakness", aren't the US sanctions the problem ?
Re:Fundemental weakness (Score:5, Informative)
Strong dependence on a single commodity (oil). When oil drops, as it is now, the economy suffers.
Re:Fundemental weakness (Score:5, Interesting)
That and they must support the clergy parasites and their military having their palms into various sectors of their economy. They are also funding stupid wars in Syria and Yemen, meddling in Iraq and Lebanon. Iran is willing to fight until the last Arab dies...which says a lot since Iranians are mostly Persians, not Arabs.
You can thank America for that too. (Score:2)
As for the Military, the most powerful nation on earth has repeatedly signaled a desire to invade. They're gonna want a strong military. They can't win, but they can hope to give us a bloody enough nose that we turn around and go home
The solution should be obvious (Score:2, Interesting)
Iran should switch to Bitcoin!
Then, once the next cryptocurrency hack cleans out the Iranian treasury, the entire country will be flat on its back. No more nuclear weapons program!
Stuxnet couldn't hold a candle to the damage that BTC would do to Iran. :-)
I call B.S. (Score:5, Insightful)
What bothers me is that not only is it so transparent what we're doing but that nobody particularity cares. You'd think Americans on all sides would be pretty angry that we're overthrowing gov'ts left and right. Outside of a few left wing news outlets and the BBC I don't see anyone talking about it.
Re: I call B.S. (Score:3)
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a commentator who said, "Most Americans would answer the protest 'no blood for oil' with 'why not?"
(Which Bush? Which war? I assume you are referring to Operation Desert Shield, under George Bush Jr, in 2003.)
A commentator may have said that, but it is not true. Americans did not think invading Iraq was about oil. At the time, oil prices were very low [macrotrends.net] so such motivation would have been weak. They were convinced that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons, that he was behind the 9/11 attacks, and that he held a store of chemical weapons. The public wanted revenge for 9/11 and were willing to
Re: I call B.S. (Score:1)
Yeah right, for 1000 years the Religion Of Peace, and the religion of the Prince of Peace, had no reason to fight. Not the crusades, or the Moors in Spain, not the first American foreign war in 1799...
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America's religious and racial diversity prevents it from ever getting that far without a civil war first. So it would implode internally and lose the power to project force in any meaningful way.
Re: I call B.S. (Score:2)
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Hamas upgrading the rockets they bombard Israel with daily to be nuclear...
Israel and Palestine are so close they would essentially be nuking themselves.
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They do not want to destroy their own holy lands. That would defeat their purpose.
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Sounds like you saw news about people dying in Yemen, and just assumed that the bogeyman of the year must be to blame, like an obedient sheeple.
None of what you just wrote is true (Score:5, Insightful)
And they don't have nukes. Even after Trump reneged on the deal they keep following it. Just like Iraq there are no weapons of mass destruction. We've got independent investigators confirming that.
Fact it, Trump wants a war. Just like Bush needed one to stay in power. You know this. You're either Trolling or being paid to Troll. Either way it pisses me off. We're spending trillions overthrowing governments. Meanwhile we don't have universal healthcare and tuition free college. Both of which are killing us on the competitive world stage.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Claiming that Trump wants a war when he's been the least warmongering president in recent history is quite a laugh.
Hillary and Obama invaded (and destroyed) Libya - all Trump has even done is a few small smackdowns in Syria when things got a little out of hand.
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You are literally talking about a guy who asked "what's the point of having nuclear weapons if you don't use them?" We're one presidential cocaine bender away from a nuclear annihilation, and you're just fine with that because it's *your* doomsday cult making it happen.
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Fun fact: you know who wrote the infamous false flag WMD memo that was used as justification to start the Iraq War? Robert S. Mueller III. Yup, the same one. The smoking gun right here. [fas.org]
The Bush administration's central justification for the Iraq war was the belief that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and could transfer them to militants. No such weapons were found after the invasion.
Here's video evidence of Mueller lying to Congress. [youtube.com] He gave the impression that the
Re: None of what you just wrote is true (Score:2)
^^^ This. Amen.
Just don't expect a troll to respect facts.
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USA's attempts at meddling several decades ago is how Khomeini got into power. Meddling backfires more often than not. You make it sound like a sure-shot thing. The newer crew always think they are better at meddling.
The rest of your accusations are too vague to evaluate. No negotiations will give us everything we want; we'll have to make trade-offs. To think one can magically get everything they want without making concessions to
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An app isn't killing their currency, the United States reckless foreign policy is. It's pretty obvious, what with the sanctions and us backing out of the deal that was and is still working that we've decided it's time for a "regime change". It's the same bloody thing we did in Iraq with the added bonus that we're going to wreck their economy first.
What bothers me is that not only is it so transparent what we're doing but that nobody particularity cares. You'd think Americans on all sides would be pretty angry that we're overthrowing gov'ts left and right. Outside of a few left wing news outlets and the BBC I don't see anyone talking about it.
Where was your outrage when Obama fucked up Libya worse than Iraq?
Re:I call B.S. (Score:4, Insightful)
What bothers me is that not only is it so transparent what we're doing but that nobody particularity cares. You'd think Americans on all sides would be pretty angry that we're overthrowing gov'ts left and right.
Why would anyone think that? The US has been overthrowing governments for decades. Why would people on all sides suddenly be angry about it? The people that didn't like it 30 years ago still don't like it, and the people that didn't care 30 years ago still don't care.
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Bad headline (Score:3, Insightful)
Even the summary says what is really destroying the currency - " deliberate circulation of rumors and fake news". Telegram (the app) is not at fault. It might be ENABLING the destruction of the currency, but it's not CAUSING it.
Fake news everywhere (Score:2)