Update: As of 28 February, following joint attacks by Israel and the US on Iran, NetBlocks confirmed that Iran is now under a near-total internet blackout with national connectivity at 4% of ordinary levels.
At around 9pm on January 8, Iran went offline. Across Tehran and cities throughout the country, internet and phone lines were cut without warning. Within minutes, people could no longer call or message loved ones, either inside Iran or beyond its borders.
“And that is when the mass killings began,” said Ali, a 33-year-old Iranian student who was among the protestors who took to the streets earlier this year to protest their government’s economic policies and restrictive personal laws.
The mounting Western sanctions on Iran–which until the Russian invasion of Ukraine was the most sanctioned country in the world–have contributed to the economic instability and steadily eroded the Iranian middle class. Additional sanctions recently imposed under the US Trump administration, including on countries trading with Iran, have worsened inflation on the livelihoods of millions, placing even the most basic necessities out of reach of the common citizen.
Speaking to WIRED Middle East, Ali—who asked to be identified by his first name only for safety reasons— described the chaos that followed the information blackouts between January 8 and 23.
“The shutdown meant that for days, we had no idea of the scale of the killings taking place. It [internet blackout] was not only for the suppression of the protests but for the planned and systemic mass murders of the protestors,” he said.
Iranian authorities have defended the blackout as a security measure. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the internet had been cut off “after we confronted terrorist operations and realised orders were coming from outside the country.” Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has also blamed foreign actors for the unrest, accusing the US of encouraging protests that left thousands of people dead.
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