September 26, 2022 – People are witnessing a series of internet blackouts in Iran as protests over the death of a young woman in police custody continue to sweep the country.
The protests started gaining momentum on September 16 after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died in hospital in the country’s capital Tehran. Her death occurred three days after she was detained and reportedly tortured by the morality police over their interpretation of “improper” clothing. The incident sparked a wave of protests across the country; demonstrations turned violent on the roads and several police stations and vehicles were set ablaze. Subsequently, Iran’s morality police was placed on the sanctions blacklist by the US.
Social media instantly became a significant source of documentation of the protests breaking out across Iran and videos of crowds expressing anger and dissent with the state started circulating widely on leading social media platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp. In an open act of dissent, women burned headscarves and cut their hair, uploading moving videos under hashtags dedicated to Amini. The protests have also spilled over to other countries such as Turkey, Canada and Germany.
As content expressly showing public defiance and anger made it to social media feeds around the world and was picked up by major international news publications, reports started emerging that the authorities in Iran had limited internet access across the country to prevent information related to the protests making to the international news circuit. Instagram and WhatsApp, which played a pivotal role in bringing forth stories of the protests, were reportedly shut down in parts of Tehran and Kurdistan.
WhatsApp, on September 22, announced that the platform was not blocking Iranian numbers.
“We exist to connect the world privately. We stand with the rights of people to access private messaging,” reads a tweet by the app. “We are not blocking Iranian numbers. We are working to keep our Iranian friends connected and will do anything within our technical capacity to keep our service up and running.”
We exist to connect the world privately. We stand with the rights of people to access private messaging. We are not blocking Iranian numbers. We are working to keep our Iranian friends connected and will do anything within our technical capacity to keep our service up and running
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) September 22, 2022
NetBlocks, an organisation that tracks connectivity outages, reported a “near-total” disruption in the Kurdistan province from the evening of Monday, September 19.
Instagram and WhatsApp, two of the last remaining international platforms in Iran, have subsequently been restricted nationally as of Wednesday, 21 September, followed by a nation-scale shutdown of mobile networks,” NetBlocks stated in a report. Cellular services were temporarily restored on Thursday, but online platforms remained restricted across the region. Mobile internet services were disrupted for the third time again on Friday, it said.
Iran, where social media censorship runs rampant at state level, is reported to have restricted access to all social media channels in an attempt to block the coverage of the Amini protests raging across the country.
“People in Iran are being cut off from online apps and services,” tweeted Instagram Chief Adan Mosseri. “Iranians use apps like Instagram to stay close to their loved ones, access timely and important information and stay connected to the rest of the world. We hope their right to be online will be reinstated quickly.”
People in Iran are being cut off from online apps and services. Iranians use apps like Instagram to stay close to their loved ones, access timely and important information and stay connected to the rest of the world. We hope their right to be online will be reinstated quickly.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) September 22, 2022
However, when Instagram’s parent company, Meta, was accused by some users of taking down posts documenting the protests, it denied any such role.
“We are not intentionally disrupting access to our platforms, nor are we blocking hashtags related to Mahsa Amini,” said Andy Stone, Communications Director at Meta. “People in Iran are being cut off from internet services and we hope their right to be online will be reinstated quickly.”
We are not intentionally disrupting access to our platforms, nor are we blocking hashtags related to Mahsa Amini. People in Iran are being cut off from internet services and we hope their right to be online will be reinstated quickly.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) September 22, 2022
Earlier this month, the Iranian government announced plans to deploy facial recognition to identify women on public transport who did not comply with the country’s strict clothing laws making headscarf mandatory.
According to Azadeh Akbari, a researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, the Iranian government has long considered the idea of using facial recognition to identify people who violate the law. “The regime combines violent ‘old-fashioned’ forms of totalitarian control dressed up in new technologies.”
A series of arrests and detentions followed the protests against the new order signed on August 15. The growing restrictions and policing on women’s clothing in Iran have drawn the ire of rights activists and feminists around the world, who have denounced the state for exerting authority and imposing restrictions on women’s clothing instead of focusing on the growing economic challenges facing the country. Women in Iran, however, continue to raise their voices against widespread crackdowns on the basis of sartorial choices by registering protests largely on social media platforms.