The Online World Where Iranians Were Free
Iran’s internet blackout is yet another act of state violence.
By Nahid Siamdoust, The Atlantic
Weeks after the uprising in Iran turned violent, no one has been able to count the dead. The state has yet to lift the internet shutdown it launched on January 8, making the information blackout the longest and most severe one that Iranians have ever experienced. More than 90 million citizens have no internet access, which has made it impossible to know the true extent of the government’s violence against protesters. The few images that have leaked out, via Starlink-satellite connections or people who have left the country, reveal a brutal crackdown that has left thousands dead. “They are killing us. It’s carnage,” a friend in Iran wrote when she finally reached me through WhatsApp on January 17. Fellow Iranians in the diaspora tell me that they have received similar messages.
