Tehran, Iran. Iran may lift its internet blackout in the coming days, a senior parliament member said on Monday, after authorities shut communications while using force to crush protests in the country’s worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Blackout and unrest
Iran’s streets have largely been quiet for a week since anti-government protests that began in late December were put down in three days of mass violence. Iranian communications including internet and international phone lines were largely stopped in the days leading up to the worst unrest.
An Iranian official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the confirmed death toll was more than 5,000, including 500 members of the security forces, with some of the worst unrest taking place in ethnic Kurdish areas in the northwest. Western-based Iranian rights groups also say thousands were killed.
Opponents accuse the authorities of opening fire on peaceful demonstrators to crush dissent. Iran’s clerical rulers say armed crowds egged on by foreign enemies attacked hospitals and mosques.
The death tolls dwarf those of previous bouts of anti-government unrest put down by the authorities in 2022 and 2009. The violence drew repeated threats from U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene militarily, although he has backed off since the large-scale killing stopped.
Signals and claims of hacking
State television appeared to be hacked late on Sunday, briefly showing speeches by Trump and the exiled son of Iran’s last shah calling on the public to revolt.
Parliament members on restoring internet
Ebrahim Azizi, the head of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said top security bodies would decide on restoring internet in the coming days, with service resuming “as soon as security conditions are appropriate”.
Another parliament member, hardliner Hamid Rasaei, said authorities should have listened to earlier complaints by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei about “lax cyberspace”.
The blackout has since partially eased, allowing accounts of widespread attacks on protesters to emerge.
How do you expect an internet restoration would affect the flow of information about the unrest?
