While the population is angry after the death of the young Mahsa Amini, the Iranian authorities have blocked almost all Internet services in the country. Platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram are now inaccessible everywhere in Iran.
While WhatsApp and Instagram are among the last major international social networks to still be active in Iran, the regime decided to block them throughout the territory on Wednesday, September 21, just before cutting off all Internet access in the country. . These drastic measures follow the demonstrations that have erupted in recent days after the death, on September 16, of the young Mahsa Amini (22 years old). Her death occurred while she was being held by the morality police for failing to respect the strict dress code imposed on women, which obliges them to wear the veil and punishes them for improper wearing of the latter.
A gradual, then total cut, impossible to circumvent
According to the cyber monitoring service NetBlocks, which promotes free access to the Internet, the shutdown of the Iranian Internet network was gradual. Initially, it was on the side of the cities of Tehran and Sanandaj that the first cuts were detected on Monday, September 19. The authorities thus targeted the first places where the demonstrators had decided to shout their anger. Then the Kurdistan region, where Mahsa Amini was from, was completely cut off from the Internet. The restrictions now affect the entire Iranian territory.
On Wednesday, therefore, it was impossible to access the Instagram and WhatsApp platforms from the main telecom operators in the country. Network disruption is such that it is not possible to circumvent it, whether via a VPN or otherwise.
Worse still, still on Wednesday, the country’s leading mobile operator, MCI, cut off all of its services altogether, de facto depriving Iranians of an essential means of communication, which is moreover in a country heavily dependent on mobile service.
The fear of blockages similar to those of 2019
If Instagram and WhatsApp are now inaccessible, you should know that in Iran, the free use of the Internet was already seriously cut. The social networks Facebook and Twitter, for example, have been banned for several years in the country.
In November 2019, Iran had already cut internet access nationwide after protests by the population, who were demonstrating against rising fuel prices, leading to a crackdown that would have caused the death of 143 people according to Amnesty International. At the time, connectivity was restored very gradually, after several weeks of interruption.
Although Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in Kurdistan visited Masha Amini’s family in an attempt to ease tensions by promising to ” follow the case to the end many fear today that Iran will plunge, as in 2019, into a period of repression and long-term blockages of essential communications, which not only endangers the population, but also deprives them of showing the world the sad reality of events.
Source : netblocks
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