By Amir Rashidi, James Marchant, and Kaveh Azarhoosh

Since the assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani on 3 January there has been a significant escalation of political tensions inside Iran. Particularly since the tragic shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, and authorities’ failed initial attempts as misinformation and misdirection, popular anger has begun to boil over into the streets once again.

Although we have not yet seen the imposition of a protracted total internet shutdown like we observed during the fuel price protests of November 2019, we have seen a number of indications that authorities are implementing targeted disruptions of citizens’ access to the Internet.

Given Iran’s recent track record of responding to popular dissent, and in light of the total internet shutdown imposed during the unrest in November, Small Media is deeply concerned about the possibility that Iran will impose further internet controls and disruptions if protests in Iran continue to grow.

With serious questions still to be answered by Iranian authorities regarding the decision-making process in November that led to the nationwide internet shutdown, it is crucial that the Iranian government, the National Security Council, the ICT Ministry, the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution, and the Supreme Council for Cyberspace are all held to account for any attempts they make to restrict access to the global Internet.

Small Media urges the Iranian government not to restrict citizens’ right to protest, or to undermine the safety and security of protesters in Iran by attempting to disrupt the access to the internet. We will continue to monitor any interruptions to internet access in Iran, and plan to release our full documentation around January’s service disruptions later in the month.

Below is our documentation of the internet disruptions recorded since 6 January. A detailed report outlining incidents throughout January will be published on Filterwatch at the end of the month.