{"id":4423,"date":"2026-01-16T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/irans-internet-blackout-tightens-information-chokehold-amid-spreading-protests\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T05:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T05:20:16","slug":"irans-internet-blackout-tightens-information-chokehold-amid-spreading-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/irans-internet-blackout-tightens-information-chokehold-amid-spreading-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s internet blackout tightens information chokehold amid spreading protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By\u00a0Asal Abasian<\/a><\/em>, Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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Iranian authorities have imposed a near-total\u00a0internet shutdown\u00a0as nationwide protests intensify, severely restricting journalists\u2019 ability to report and cutting off communication with the outside world.<\/p>\n

The blackout began on January 8, more than a week after protests erupted in\u00a0late December\u00a0over mounting economic pressure, currency devaluation, and rising living costs. Journalists and rights advocates say the\u00a0internet shutdown\u00a0and restricted\u00a0telephone\u00a0access\u00a0\u2014 a practice used by authorities in previous mass protests \u2014 appear aimed at suppressing coverage of the unrest and obscuring the scale of arrests and casualties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran\u2019s near-total shutdown of the internet is a blatant assault on press freedom,\u201d said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. \u201cBy cutting connectivity, authorities are preventing journalists from documenting events and isolating the country from international scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the days leading up to the cutoff, journalists and media workers inside Iran reported increasing pressure from authorities not to cover events, including\u00a0warnings, intimidation, and summonses, according to press freedom organisations and human rights monitors. Independent journalists faced restrictions on internet access and\u00a0disrupted mobile data,\u00a0slow or throttled\u00a0connections \u2014 measures that already constrained reporters\u2019 ability to contact sources, verify developments, and publish for domestic and international audiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once internet access was cut entirely, even this restricted flow of information stopped. Phone calls to numbers inside Iran no longer connect, and most Iranian media outlets websites fail to load in web browsers.<\/p>\n

As a result, information about arrests, injuries, and deaths remains difficult to verify. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency\u00a0reported\u00a0that, as of late Tuesday, more than 18,000 people have been detained and over 2,400 killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know how many people have been\u00a0killed\u00a0or whether journalists are among those detained,\u201d said Asieh Amini, a Norway-based Iranian writer and media analyst. \u201cSevere censorship means even basic facts are unclear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the blackout, CPJ has been unable to verify information about journalists inside Iran.\u00a0Mohammad Javad Akbarin, a London-based freelance journalist and political analyst, described the shutdown as \u201cdigital darkness designed to hide suppression from the eyes of the world,\u201d warning that limited available footage suggests a \u201cmajor catastrophe.\u201d He compared the situation to the\u00a0November 2019 protests, known as \u201cBloody November,\u201d when at least 1,500 people were\u00a0killed\u00a0during a crackdown that coincided with a nationwide internet shutdown, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

The limited information leaving the country has largely been through Starlink, a satellite service illegal in Iran, according to\u00a0Iran International\u00a0and\u00a0Iran Wire, who both reported authorities seizing the required satellite dishes in raids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The legal rhetoric accompanying the blackout has also hardened.<\/p>\n

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated\u00a0Tasnim\u00a0news agency reported that prosecutors\u00a0in Tehran said\u00a0all those involved in the recent unrest would be treated\u00a0as\u00a0\u201cmohareb\u201c<\/em>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a charge under Iran\u2019s penal code that can carry the death penalty \u2014 and called for prosecutions \u201cwithout leniency or mercy.\u201d They\u00a0also\u00a0warned that all alleged protesters would\u00a0face identical charges, while cautioning social media activists.<\/p>\n

Behrouz Turani, an Iranian freelance editor and journalism expert in exile, warned against lowering editorial standards under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a near-total communication blackout, journalists often face the temptation to lower their usual standards for verification. The best practice in such circumstances is to raise the threshold for fact-checking, not lower it. Accuracy must take precedence over speed,\u201d Turani said.<\/p>\n

According to CPJ research,\u00a0at least 96 journalists have been arrested\u00a0by the regime since the last massive nationwide protests in Iran along with Mahsa (Jina) Amini\u2019s death in September 2022. Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, died in the custody of morality police.<\/p>\n

CPJ emailed the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York for comment, but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note<\/em><\/strong>: This article has been updated to include the latest arrest and death figures from HRANA.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Asal Abasian, Committee to Protect Journalists Iranian authorities have imposed a near-total\u00a0internet shutdown\u00a0as nationwide protests intensify, severely restricting journalists\u2019 ability to report and cutting off communication with the outside world. The blackout began on January 8, more than a week after protests erupted in\u00a0late December\u00a0over mounting economic pressure, currency devaluation, and rising living costs. Journalists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4425,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423\/revisions\/4425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}