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After days of deadly protests, Iran implements ‘largest internet shutdown ever’

Yet the uprising continues.

 

Claire Goforth

IRL

Posted on Nov 18, 2019   Updated on May 19, 2021, 10:43 pm CDT

In recent days, thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets to protest the government. Twelve deaths and hundreds of injuries have thus far been reported in a wave of unrest across the nation. More than 1,000 have been arrested.

Over the weekend, in an attempt to quell the uprising, Iran announced a near-total blackout of internet access.

The protests are by far the largest the Middle Eastern nation has experienced since 2009. Some report that the number of disgruntled Iranians demonstrating against the government is approaching that seen during the 1979 revolution.

The protests were sparked by steep increases in fuel prices implemented to staunch the economic bleeding caused by U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil. Angry crowds reportedly burned gas stations, banks, statues and photos of the Ayatollah.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blames the unrest on monarchists, foreign interference, and opposition groups seeking to destabilize the nation, the New York Times reports.

The White House publicly supports the protests. Tehran responded by calling the U.S. “hypocritical.”

“It seems weird to see sympathizing with a nation suffering from the US’ economic terrorism and the same person who has already said that the Iranian people should be starved to surrender,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi, according to CNN.

Even without internet, protests continue to rage. At present, it seems that discontent is on the rise. Some observers wonder whether the nation is on the brink of revolution.

Writer Shay Khatiri tweeted that the military and police are “very sympathetic” to the people and that some who work within the domestic security apparatus have been sending anonymous supportive messages to the protesters.

Although the gas price increase inspired the demonstrations, criticisms of the government have mounted in recent years. Some blame the U.S. for sanctions that have crippled the economy, but Iranians are increasingly frustrated with what they view as corruption by the ruling clerics.

Protesters have been heard chanting, “We don’t want an Islamic Republic, we don’t want it, we don’t want it.”

The internet blackout—which Oracle’s Internet Intelligence is calling “the largest internet shutdown ever observed in Iran”—makes it more difficult for protesters to coordinate and stymies the flow of information within and without the country. Yet some images and videos have made their way onto social media.

As of Monday afternoon, more than 40,000 people had viewed a video of protesters handing out flowers to police, saying, “We are not the enemy.”

Another video making the rounds showed a statue of Khomeini’s ring aflame as people reportedly chanted, “Don’t be afraid we are all in this together.” Thousands are tweeting under #IranProtest.

Images and videos of this nature are precisely the sort of content that the government is trying to suppress by shutting down the internet.

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*First Published: Nov 18, 2019, 12:55 pm CST