{"id":102330,"date":"2026-05-07T13:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/102330\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T13:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:13:12","slug":"global-protests-planned-as-irans-internet-outage-reaches-nearly-70-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/102330\/","title":{"rendered":"Global protests planned as Iran’s internet outage reaches nearly 70 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Global demonstrations are set to go ahead on Sunday as civilians in the Islamic Republic will have experienced more than 70 days without access to internet services<\/a>, according to data published by the internet monitoring service NetBlocks.<\/p>\n

The office of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi<\/a> announced the demonstrations would go ahead, describing the current restrictions as keeping the Iranian people \u201chostage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pahlavi’s office added that while the large majority of Iranians were unable to connect with the outside world, the Islamic regime has carried out mass arrests and stepped up the rate of its executions.<\/p>\n

Iran has regularly used internet shutdowns as a means of control, restricting access in Kurdish provinces following the killing of Mahsa Amini and outbreak of the Women, Life, Freedom protests in 2022, and in response to the January protests which broke out in response to the country\u2019s dire financial crisis.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Iranian woman, Samaneh, shows her mobile phone, after a nationwide internet shutdown since January 8, 2026, following Iran’s protests, in Tehran, Iran, January 25, 2026 (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR\/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)<\/p>\n

Unlike in January, the majority of those in Iran can still access some state-controlled domestic networks and state media.<\/p>\n

Iran allows some individuals to access internet via SIM cards, packages<\/p>\n

While the large majority of Iran\u2019s civil society has been unable to connect, decimating small businesses and clouding international monitoring of the human rights violations there, the regime has allowed a small number of individuals aligned with Iran to access the internet through white SIM cards and Internet Pro packages.<\/p>\n

Amir Rashidi, a cybersecurity expert at Miaan, a digital-rights group focused on Iran, previously explained to The Jerusalem Post that Iran had employed new infrastructure, making internet access a privilege rather than a right.<\/p>\n

Select members of Iranian society, especially those in the fields of politics or academia, are able to access the internet to some degree depending on the level of clearance granted by the regime. While the regime has failed to make clear the qualifications needed for clearance, Rashidi warned that elements like ethnicity and gender could be taken into consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Pro Internet is an overt form of digital discrimination, the level of access to these services also varies across different professions, and it’s unclear based on what criteria it has been designed. By paying the same 40,000 tomans for each gigabyte of Pro Internet, a university professor receives more limited access compared to a journalist,\u201d the Iran-focused digital rights organization published. \u201cIt remains to be seen what level of access other social classes will receive in exchange for the amount paid, as this trend continues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing desperation to access online space, whether to contact relatives abroad, work or whistleblow against the regime\u2019s human rights abuses, has led some to connect with Virtual Private Networks and Starlink satellite dishes. This connection carries with it a significant risk.<\/p>\n

Hesam Alaeddin, 40, was reportedly beaten to death by the regime\u2019s security forces<\/a> for accessing the internet with Starlink, according to international reports citing an informed source.<\/p>\n

The human rights organization Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation reported that security forces arrested the businessman after he visited a facility to check on his brother, who had been arrested. Both brothers were accused of using Starlink and were assaulted by the security forces, according to the group.<\/p>\n

Beyond being exceptionally risky, access to Starlink has become increasingly expensive. Starlink kits that once sold for around $1,000 on the black market are now going for more than $5,000, according to information received from DW News, and VPNs can now cost up to 1 million tomans per gigabyte of data (around $6).<\/p>\n

Other Iranians have sought to tackle individual restrictions caused by the larger blackout. UK-based Iranian opposition activist and independent cyber espionage investigator Nariman Gharib announced on Wednesday that he had created an application, \u2018Eagle Eye,\u2019 which would allow Iranians to receive broadcasts from non-state actors without using the internet.<\/p>\n

Iranians, already suffering from high inflation and economic crisis in Iran, have seen the situation only worsen in recent months, with access to sales abroad largely closed off. Economist Hassan Mansur told DW that the Iranian economy was suffering a daily loss of around $37.7 million and estimated that around 70% of businesses were impacted by the restrictions.<\/p>\n

“The fall in revenue for online businesses is estimated at between 50 and 90%,” he said, adding many companies had closed entirely.<\/p>\n

Unaffected by the internet restrictions are members of the Islamic regime\u2019s leadership<\/a>, who have been able to continue their social media use, unaffected by the blackout. The regime\u2019s foreign minister spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei used his unrestricted access on Tuesday to complain of \u201cselective censorship\u201d after his blue tick was removed on the popular platform X.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis arbitrary de-verification fits X\u2019s pattern of selective censorship and American digital piracy, aimed at suppressing the truth about the US\u2019 illegal war against Iran,\u201d Baghaei published in a post quickly flooded by Iranian opposition members pointing out the apparent irony.<\/p>\n

Former Canadian politician Goldie Ghamari, who was recently the target of a regime-sponsored group seeking her beheading, responded, \u201cAt least you can still post on X you terrorist. You’ve cut off the internet for 90 million Iranians in occupied Iran. Don’t worry. We’re coming for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Global demonstrations are set to go ahead on Sunday as civilians in the Islamic Republic will have experienced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1445,34,393,22458,49,1868,69,8918],"class_list":{"0":"post-102330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-internet","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-islamic-republic","11":"tag-mahsa-amini","12":"tag-middle-east","13":"tag-reza-pahlavi","14":"tag-tehran","15":"tag-twitter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116533474496409838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}