After protests broke out in early January, the Iranian regime shut down the internet, beginning the longest blackout in Iranian historical past. Despite this try and cease the protests from spreading, they didn’t cease. Still, the internet shutdown slowed down the unfold of knowledge each inside and outdoors Iran.
Behind the closely policed borders and the jammed indicators, an unprecedented wave of state violence continues so as to add to a demise toll someplace between 3,000 and 30,000. Even on the lowest depend, which has been acknowledged by the Iranian state and is probably going a wild underestimate, these previous couple of weeks have been one of many bloodiest uprisings in trendy historical past.
The scenario in Iran might be exhausting to understand. The historical past is difficult; the state of the know-how and internet infrastructure there may be always in flux. To get a way of what’s occurring proper now, I turned to an knowledgeable. Mahsa Alimardani, the affiliate director of the Technology Threats & Opportunities program at WITNESS, has been a researcher and advocate within the digital rights house — notably round Iran — since 2012. I spoke along with her about what is going on in Iran, and the way know-how each props up and threatens repressive regimes.
The Verge: What is internet entry in Iran like proper now?
Mahsa Alimardani: Since the weekend [of January 24], there was some resumption of connectivity. And I’m just a little bit apprehensive that this may persuade people who issues are again to regular. Last I noticed, there was like 30 to 40 % connectivity on among the Cloudflare community knowledge in Iran and there’s very inconsistent connectivity. Some circumvention instruments have began to work.
Randomly, somebody in Iran FaceTime known as me yesterday. They had been like, “My VPN stopped working, so I just tried to call with FaceTime, and for some reason, it didn’t even need a VPN.” But it was a momentary glitch. Various issues are occurring throughout the community, and it’s not likely clear why there’s this opening, or what it means for long-term connectivity.
Since January eighth, when there was a surge within the rebellion within the protest motion in Iran, there was an internet shutdown — the longest internet shutdown in Iran, they broke the report in size.
They additionally broke the report in variety of protesters which have been massacred. It’s horrifying to assume that know-how helps allow such crimes.
Why does the Iranian authorities worry internet entry?
In 1988, there was a fatwa the place the federal government massacred a whole lot of political prisoners in a brief span of time. I deliver this up as a result of it occurred when there was no internet, and the media was closely managed and centralized by the state. If you didn’t flee Iran, and if you weren’t a part of the era of prisoners and political activists that survived, it was very exhausting to go on the reminiscence of that occasion. Peers of mine in Iran didn’t develop up with the identical info. It’s so attention-grabbing having these conversations with individuals and realizing they’re studying historical past solely once they depart the nation.
What’s been an actual sport changer is the way in which you possibly can doc and witness these sorts of crimes within the age of the internet. I feel it’s clearly a giant risk to the regime. It’s an enormous risk to them to have the ability to maintain them accountable, and have the ability to doc and witness what they’re doing.
Anytime anybody sees a extreme crackdown like an internet shutdown, you recognize that it’s going to be adopted by violence. In 2019 there was a week-long internet shutdown, beneath the blanket of which they massacred 1,500 individuals. The purpose why is as a result of they don’t need individuals to make use of the internet for mobilization and communication, they usually don’t need there to be a method to doc what’s occurring.
Anytime anybody sees a extreme crackdown like an internet shutdown, you recognize that it’s going to be adopted by violence
So the denial of the size of their crimes is a part of what they do in Iran, as a result of it’s very exhausting to evaluate the share of legitimacy that the regime has, as a result of clearly you possibly can’t do free polling. You don’t have free media. Even when you might have overseas journalists that go there, they’re adopted by minders and the reporting is super-limited. The UN hasn’t been in a position to actually have anybody do correct website visits for human rights documentation, for the reason that begin of this regime in 1979.
There isn’t any actual entry to skilled on-the-ground documentation and fact-finding. So all of it actually relies upon on the internet, on individuals, on citizen media. People sending issues, placing them on-line, after which having skilled fact-checkers and verification.
What was internet entry in Iran like most lately? What platforms and repair suppliers did individuals use earlier than the blackout began?
Iranians are extraordinarily tech savvy as a result of there’s been a cat-and-mouse sport throughout the internet for many of its existence. Since 2017, 2018, on common, there’s been protests each two years. Each time they’ve a special degree of censorship, new sorts of guidelines and laws.
In 2017, [messaging app] Telegram was large. Some individuals had been even saying Telegram was the internet for Iranians, they had been doing all the pieces throughout Telegram. It labored rather well, particularly with community bandwidth being actually low. So Telegram was a spot for information, chatting, socializing all the pieces, even like on-line markets. But then they blocked it in 2018 when protests began, as a result of protest mobilization on there was a risk to the regime.
There was a transfer towards Instagram and WhatsApp turning into the most well-liked functions.
They had but to be blocked again then. Instagram was extra for enjoyable, however it turned way more politicized after Telegram was blocked. Then, throughout the Woman Life Freedom motion in 2022, Instagram and WhatsApp acquired blocked.
The regime has spent a whole lot of effort in attempting to disable VPNs
Most persons are simply on VPNs. The regime has spent a whole lot of effort in attempting to disable VPNs. There’s a whole lot of completely different VPN tasks each for-profit and nonprofit that work inside that cat-and-mouse sport the place protocols are being disabled and new ones are created.
An common Iranian typically has many alternative VPNs. When one can’t work, they’ll flip on one other one.
We’ve talked about how know-how threatens the regime and the way common Iranians use it. Let’s change over to the opposite facet of this problem: how does know-how allow repression?
So there’s numerous various things the regime does, completely different ranges of enacting info controls. There’s the censorship degree of shutting it down.
Then there’s bodily coercion. Like, I do know individuals who haven’t reported their kids who’ve been killed lately as a result of they had been so frightened by the method by which they needed to get their beloved one’s physique.
They additionally flood the data house with a whole lot of misinformation. They create a whole lot of doubt.
They’ve been doing this info manipulation even earlier than the internet. Iran is a really difficult info house. There are a whole lot of actors past the regime who additionally need to manipulate it. Even genuine dissidents and activism will get lumped in with Mossad or CIA operations.
Iran’s overseas relations muddy its info house
In 1953, the American CIA and British MI6 overthrew the democratic authorities of Iran, consolidating energy beneath a monarchy that was extra favorable to the US and the UK. Many consider that the political instability brought on by the CIA and MI6 ultimately led to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which established the present authoritarian regime.
From 2014 to 2024, Iran and Russia joined a strategic partnership with the Syrian dictatorship as a part of the Syrian civil conflict. The United States shaped its personal coalition; each coalitions presupposed to struggle ISIS. The civil conflict spawned large quantities of internet disinformation, and in 2018, Facebook and Twitter deleted a whole lot of accounts originating in Russia and Iran that shaped a worldwide affect community pushing disinformation. The Syrian regime was overthrown on the finish of 2024. The subsequent yr, following many years of hostilities, Israel and Iran engaged in a 12-day conflict.
These are some, however not the entire components that contribute to the difficult info house in Iran that Alimardani is referring to.
The regime’s marketing campaign existed pre-internet, however with know-how, it went into overdrive. They’ve been fairly intelligent in among the methods they’ve coated the protests. They’ve been in a position to even mobilize, like, people who find themselves sympathetic to the Palestinian trigger, in opposition to, you recognize, the Iranian trigger for liberation.
There have been a whole lot of documented efforts of them attempting to control protest documentation, undermine it, you recognize, use the idea of the Liar’s Dividend, which may be very simple to make use of within the more and more AI world we’re in.
Hold on, are you able to undergo these examples you simply talked about? About mobilizing people who find themselves sympathetic to the Palestinian trigger?
Yeah, so, Iran is kind of difficult in that it’s an Islamic fascist state. They use Islam in a whole lot of methods to repress the individuals. And there may be a whole lot of very legitimate rhetoric about Islamophobia within the West, from the very particular context and historical past of the United States, equivalent to what occurred throughout the War on Terror.
But in Iran, it’s fairly completely different. And this could actually be manipulated and conflated, proper? Mosques in Iran are sometimes additionally the headquarters for the Basij [the Iranian paramilitary corps], and other people won’t know this. So there might be movies like, “Look at these protesters who are setting fire to this mosque. Look at these Islamophobic rioters.”
You may see that, with out the context that the mosques are also locations the place the safety forces that kill persons are stationed, and lose why one thing like that might be attacked by Iranians looking for liberation.
You talked about the regime’s use of AI — do you need to speak just a little bit extra about that?
Yeah, so, we didn’t want AI for authoritarian regimes to disclaim proof of their crimes. Even earlier than AI, Bashir al-Assad [the former dictator of Syria] was saying that dependable documentation of his crimes in Syria weren’t legitimate.
Whether we prefer it or not, AI is being built-in into a whole lot of issues. AI modifying is slowly turning into ubiquitous. Like, in truth, we would come to a degree the place modifying images or something may develop into unavoidable with out the usage of generative AI.
So you not have that binary of like, if it’s AI, it’s pretend. If there’s no AI, it’s actual.
So there’s this very symbolic picture that everybody has stated reminded them of the Tiananmen Square Tank Man from 1989. But right here, a protester is standing in entrance of armed safety forces on bikes with weapons. [Ed. note: The New York Post ran with the headline “Powerful image of lone Iranian protester in front of security forces draws parallels to Tiananmen Square ‘Tank Man.’”]
This was a really low decision video taken from a excessive rise [building]. Someone had screenshotted a body from the video and it was fairly blurry.
They used some AI modifying software program to reinforce it, and you possibly can see some AI artifacts. Nevertheless, that is an genuine, verified picture of a courageous protester. Lots of credible sources have verified it. But instantly, it was identified to have these AI artifacts, and a whole lot of the regime accounts began this narrative of “This is all AI slop from Zionists.”
And after all, as a result of, you recognize, Israel has a particular curiosity in Iran, they’ve a Farsi-language state account. Israel’s Farsi state account shared the picture, which additional fueled the declare that this genuine picture from Iran was AI slop being pushed by the enemy, Israel.
As you’ve already talked about, Iran has an advanced info surroundings. What would you say are the assorted actors on this house? What sorts of issues are they doing?
Obviously there are overseas coverage pursuits by Israel and the US in Iran, simply due to the historical past and really antagonistic relationship they’ve had from the very starting of the revolution.
The Iran-Israel conflict in June 2025 was a brilliant attention-grabbing second as a result of the conflict began a number of weeks after Google launched Veo 3, which has made entry to very life like generative AI content material very simple. So proper off the bat, you possibly can see, from either side, a whole lot of AI content material coming from the conflict. This wasn’t the primary conflict the place that’s occurred — just like the Ukraine conflict has had so many alternative examples — however since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine [beginning in 2022], the know-how has superior way more, so it turned a really huge a part of the narrative of the scenario in Iran.
The most well-known instance from the Iran-Israel conflict was a chunk of manipulated content material that Citizen Lab later was in a position to attribute to the Israeli state. It was this AI-generated video of Israel bombing the gates of Evin Prison, perpetuating this narrative that they’ve very exact army operations and that they had been releasing these political prisoners.
Evin is a really well-known jail for lots of activists and dissidents and intellectuals in Iran. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International known as the bombing of Evin Prison a conflict crime. And certainly, political prisoners had been casualties of the bombing.
But that deepfaked video went viral. Mainstream media even reposted it instantly earlier than a whole lot of numerous completely different researchers, together with our deepfakes speedy response drive and others, had been in a position to attest that certainly this was a manipulated video.
So you might have this info house that’s fairly difficult. But on this state of affairs, I feel it could actually be remiss to place that a lot emphasis on the function that these different actors have. There are issues from these outdoors actors that fog up the data house, however finally what’s actually occurring is that there’s a very unprecedented bloodbath occurring. And the perpetrator is the Islamic Republic of Iran.
I’ve seen some reporting about how Iranians purchased Starlink terminals previous to the blackout. Can you say something about that?
Yeah, I need to begin by referencing a very nice article by the Sudanese activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied, known as “Sudanese People Don’t Have the Luxury of Hating Elon Musk.” Whatever my private concepts are about Elon Musk, it’s a must to give credit score the place credit score is due. This know-how is a sport changer. It’s been a sport changer in Sudan. And it has been in Iran.
We’ve had a number of days of just a little little bit of connectivity of individuals coming on-line simply via the abnormal community, however when the shutdown was full and full, Starlink was actually the one window we had into Iran.
When the shutdown was full and full, Starlink was actually the one window we had into Iran
And in case you speak to documentation organizations, they’ll let you know, they had been getting proof and doing the verification via what was coming in from the Starlink connections. I do know of people that had a Starlink and had like a complete neighborhood of individuals are available to examine in and use the Wi-Fi.
The most credible stats earlier than the scenario was that there’s about 50,000 Starlinks. There’s seemingly greater than 56,000 now. It turned very fashionable throughout the Iran-Israel War, due to course, then the Islamic Republic enacted one other shutdown. Lots of people invested in getting Starlink then.
You can get something you need in Iran via smugglers — I feel Starlink was like $1,000 on the time as a result of demand was so excessive. Receivers are ordinarily a number of hundred US {dollars}. The final worth I heard was they had been being bought for $2,000 in Iran. It’s some huge cash, however given the demand and the large threat the smugglers must undertake, I feel it’s truthful, but additionally, it means you possibly can’t actually scale this, and the people who have it are very privileged or have entry to very privileged individuals.
What we’re seeing is a really small window. When having discussions with numerous people which have been doing firsthand documentation, they’ve expressed, “We’re not getting enough from Kurdistan. We’re not getting enough documentation from Sistan and Baluchestan.” Historically, these areas are sometimes on the forefront of protests, as a result of the regime typically has the bloodiest types of repression in these provinces with marginalized ethnicities. Areas like Sistan and Baluchestan have a whole lot of financial poverty, in order that they’d have much less entry to one thing privileged like Starlink.
Satellite internet is admittedly this manner of reimagining connectivity
For all these years, myself, many individuals, have been working on this idea of internet censorship and internet shutdowns. And there actually hasn’t been a method to reimagine this method. There’s this idea of digital sovereignty in place when it comes to internet entry and internet infrastructure that matches inside nationwide borders. In even essentially the most democratic of nations, that is nonetheless nationwide infrastructure that the federal government can have entry or types of management over.
This idea must be damaged. Satellite internet is admittedly this manner of reimagining connectivity, not only for Iran, however wherever the place lack of connectivity ends in a disaster, whether or not humanitarian one, or a bloodbath of this proportion.
It’s actually necessary to reconceive entry to satellite tv for pc internet in a means that might scale past those that are privileged and past these prepared to take the danger. And one of many concepts that I’ve had and have been working on with different colleagues at Access Now has been to push for direct-to-cell entry, which is a type of satellite tv for pc internet connectivity that relies upon on know-how that exists in telephones created from 2020 onwards. We launched this marketing campaign known as Direct 2 Cell, hoping to push ahead this idea.
On a private notice, how are you doing? Have you heard from your pals, household, different individuals you recognize in Iran lately?
I’ve been in a position to be in contact with a few of my household and others right here and there.
I additionally had that random FaceTime audio name from one other particular person I do know. I used to be very apprehensive about them as a result of they’ve been on the protests. I had heard via numerous people who they had been okay, however I lastly heard from them firsthand, and it was such a weird expertise, chatting with them.
I had by no means heard them sound the way in which that they sounded: recounting their expertise of leaving the protest earlier than the army tanks got here to open hearth on the crowds, how they acquired tear gassed, and for the following few days, seeing water hoses washing blood off the streets. It gave the impression of they had been making a whole lot of darkish jokes — I had by no means heard them sound this manner. I don’t know how one can stroll the streets of your neighborhood, seeing individuals wash off blood, and simply…. like, one thing not essentially change in your thoughts.
I simply, I don’t, I can’t think about easy methods to course of it if I used to be there. As somebody within the diaspora, it’s exhausting to course of being privileged and being away.
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