Widespread internet outages in Iran amid protests around the killing of Mahsa Amini

Amid mounting protests over the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, the Iranian government recently expanded its internet shutdown. Amini had been held in the custody of Tehran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code by wearing her headscarf too loosely. The police argued that she had died of a heart attack, however, the young woman had no pre-existing heart condition. Speaking to BBC Persia, Amini’s father, Amjad Amini, said: “I have no idea what they did to her. Everything is a lie.” It is believed that she was severely beaten, and died from the resulting trauma. Tehran’s police chief Hossein Rahimi has denied these allegations and saying they are “completely false.”

In response to her death in custody, Iran’s largest protests in almost three years have bubbled up, bringing together hundreds of demonstrators, reformist activists and journalists. This has been accompanied by Iranian women using TikTok to protest, too, and many videos have been uploaded of women shaving their heads, cutting their hair, and burning hijabs. The hashtag #mahsaamini has received more than 66m views. The 1500tasvir Instagram account has also been publishing videos of protests, and according to a report by Wired, it is receiving more than 1,000 videos per day, with its Instagram account amassing 450,000 followers. The government has hit back by imposing a nationwide internet shutdown which has included the shutdown of mobile networks. Internet monitoring group NetBlocks has reported that it is seeing a “curfew-style pattern of disruptions," and other internet-monitoring organizations, including Kentik, Cloudflare, and the Open Observatory of Network Interference, have documented similar disruptions.

For many, history is repeating itself, as similar shutdowns were brought in amid anti-government protests in 2019, which resulted in 1,500 people being killed during two weeks of unrest. Amir Rashidi, the director of digital rights and security at the human rights organization Miaan Group, explained to CNN that the government is following a “familiar playbook,” wherein first they shut down the mobile data, even targeting specific neighborhoods, and then if the protests do not cease, they will expand to internet shutdown, resulting in a “full shutdown.” According to NetBlocks, Instagram and WhatsApp have now been restricted, while Telegram, YouTube, and TikTok have also periodically been closed down. Moreover, on Friday, it was reported that there was a "nation-scale loss of connectivity" again.

Activists have expressed fears that if the internet is completely shut down by the regime, the world will forget about Iran and the plight millions are suffering. According to reports, the US Treasury Department is currently expanding the range of internet services available to Iranians to help aid what Deputy US Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo called “the free flow of information to the Iranian people.” The new general license includes social media platforms and video conferencing and also expands access to cloud-based services for virtual private networks (VPNs), for anonymity online.

Speaking about the severe restrictions imposed by the Iranian authorities, Shayan Sardarizadeh from the BBC's disinformation unit said: "Shutting down internet connections nationwide is the nuclear option for Iranian authorities, only triggered when they fear protests are on a scale that pose an existential threat to the regime. It is an effective tool that severely harms the ability of protesters to organise, communicate and inform the outside world, but it also carries a huge cost for the Iranian economy, businesses and public services.”

Sardarizadeh added: "However, Iranian authorities have shown time and again that when faced with a choice between a severe hit to the economy and cracking down on political unrest at any cost, they will always choose the latter."

The courageous protestors have continued to push forward, undeterred by the blackouts, but are now being faced with the threat of live ammunition and heavy deployments of security forces. One protest in Sattar Khan, a central neighborhood in Tehran, a group chanted: “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, we are all together.” Protestors and journalists have been arrested, with at least 450 reportedly arrested in the northern province, and many have been killed; so far, according to human rights group Iran Human Rights, 83 people including children have been killed, but the true figure could be much higher. The protests continue.