“They are so slow, with a lot of throttling, so it’s difficult to work on landline as well.”Īs Madory puts it: “If your phone has no mobile service, mobile data, you can’t will it into existence.” “So far, they are shutting down the mobile data and making it really difficult to work with the home connection landline,” Rashidi told CNN Business.
#BLACKOUTS SKYROCKET AMID GLOBAL UNREST FULL#
“First,” he said, “they shut down the mobile data, and this is sophisticated enough to shut down even in a particular neighborhood.” If the protests continue to grow, he said, “then they start to expand internet shut down, step by step.” Eventually, he said, “they go full shutdown and shut down everything.”īut even as it stands now, the options to get around the internet service blackouts are limited.ĭozens of people stage a demonstration to protest the death of a 22-year-old woman under custody in Tehran Iran on September 21, 2022. He believes Iranian officials are currently following a familiar playbook.
#BLACKOUTS SKYROCKET AMID GLOBAL UNREST SOFTWARE#
Rashidi, a software developer who fled Iran more than a decade ago, said he and his team help provide Iranians inside the country with tech tools, risk analysis guidance and trainings so that they can stay connected with each other even when the internet is severed by the government. Widespread scale of blackouts leave few options to circumventĪmir Rashidi, the director of digital rights and security at the human rights organization Miaan Group, operates a resource center to help those in Iran deal with internet shutdowns. “It’s still early on - it’s too early to know if this is going to be surpassed or not.” While the current internet blackout is “not as severe as November 2019,” Madory said, there are concerns it could eventually be. “This is a concrete step to provide meaningful support to Iranians demanding that their basic rights be respected.” “(W)e are going to help make sure the Iranian people are not kept isolated and in the dark,” Blinken said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday announced steps the US government was taking to clear some sanctions-related red tape and allow American tech firms to help the people of Iran access digital tools. Human rights groups say at least eight people have been killed in the demonstrations so far, and are calling on the international community - and the tech sector, especially - to do more to support the Iranian people. “Because what happens, in terms of human rights violations, abuses of power become much more difficult to document, collate and record.” “One of the most alarming things about the information blackout is that we don’t even have a precise death toll,” he added. The loss of internet connectivity has become a “central fear that’s etched into the minds of Iranians, particularly post-2019,” Toker said. People protest against increased gas price, on a highway in Tehran, Iran November 16, 2019. “My understanding given the context is the objective was to stop people from sharing videos and communicating with the outside world.”Īlp Toker, the director of Netblocks, said “the impacts of these disruptions can’t be overstated.” Earlier this week, Netblocks said the Iranian people are now subject to “the most severe internet restrictions since the November 2019 massacre.” “I don’t think there’s anything that would make us think that this is accidental,” said Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at network intelligence company Kentik, Inc.
While it is not the total internet shutdown of 2019, tech experts say they are seeing a similar pattern. And Meta has confirmed that Iranians are having trouble accessing some of its apps, including WhatsApp and Instagram. Mobile networks have been largely shut down, according to internet watchdog Netblocks.
“I have no idea what they did to her,” her father, Amjad Amini, told BBC Persia. Iranian officials claimed she had a heart attack, but her family has said she had no preexisting heart condition. Protestors have flooded the streets in recent days after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, died while in custody of Tehran’s morality police. Now, some worry history could repeat itself amid renewed civil unrest. Iran's President abandons CNN interview after Amanpour declines head scarf demand
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