Iran Experienced Prolonged Internet Blackout Amidst Protests
Iran experienced its longest internet blackout following protests in early January 2026, significantly hindering the flow of information, according to multiple news sources. While connectivity has partially resumed, experts worry that this signals a false return to normalcy amidst ongoing state violence and a complex technological landscape used by both the regime and its opposition, reported The Verge.
The internet shutdown occurred in the wake of protests, although the exact cause and duration were not specified in the provided sources. The blackout significantly impacted the ability of citizens to share information and organize, despite not completely halting demonstrations.
The Verge noted that the technological landscape in Iran is complex, with both the government and opposition utilizing it. The partial restoration of internet connectivity has raised concerns that the situation may appear more stable than it actually is, masking ongoing state violence.
In other news, a Hacker News post highlighted the largest number representable in 64 bits. According to the post from January 28, 2026, the largest possible value of 64-bit unsigned integers is 2^64-1, or 18,446,744,073,709,551,615, also represented as 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF in hexadecimal. This value is available as data type uint64t in C or u64 in Rust. The post was a rewrite of an earlier blog post from November 2023, with new insights and updates. The post clarified that floating-point data types can represent much larger values.
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