Iran sees ‘major’ internet disruption amid renewed protests

Iran is suffering a “major disruption” in internet service amid calls for renewed protests weeks after the death of a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the country’s morality police, an advocacy group says.

NetBlocks, an advocacy group, says that Iran’s internet traffic had dropped to some 25 percent compared to the peak, even during a working day in which students were in class across the country.

The demonstrations over the death of Mahsa Amini have become one of the greatest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the country’s 2009 Green Movement protests. Demonstrators have included oil workers, high school students and women marching without their mandatory headscarf, or hijab.

Calls for protests beginning at noon today saw a massive deployment of riot police and plainclothes officers throughout Tehran, witnesses say. They also describe disruptions affecting their mobile internet services.

“The incident is likely to further limit the free flow of information amid protests,” NetBlocks says.