Disruption in Internet Access

Disruption of the Internet and mobile communication networks was detected from the first days of the recent protests.
From September 20, 2022, Internet disruptions reached its peak, especially in Kurdistan and other protest hotbeds.
The cities of Saqqez, Arak, Urumieh, Oshnavieh, Amlash, Ahwaz, Baneh, Bijar, Paveh, Piranshahr, Takab, Chabahar, Dehgolan, Divandareh, Rabat, Rasht, Sardasht, Sarvabad, Saqqez, Sanandaj, Shahin Shahr, Shahin Dejh, Shiraz, Qorveh, Qazvin, Kamyaran, Karaj, Kermanshah, Langeroud, Marivan, Mashhad, Mahabad, and all over Kurdistan and parts of Metropolitan Tehran experienced the most cases of Internet disruptions until December 7, 2022.
There are several reports that indicate, in a number of cities in the country, the speed of the Internet diminished from 12 noon to 4p.m., and then from 4p.m. to 12 midnight, the reduction in the speed of home Internet doubled and mobile Internet was also completely cut off in that time frame.
In addition, the review of Internet Outage Detection (IODA) data, which reviews Internet traffic around the world, indicates that the 10 provinces that face the most interruptions and disruptions of the internet are: Hormozgan, Fars, Isfahan, Ilam, Qom, Semnan, Tehran, Qazvin, Mazandaran, and Golestan.
From September 20, when the communication disruption took a nationwide form, platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Skype, App Store, Google Play, Clash of Clans, LinkedIn, and Viber were filtered.
In the wake of Internet disruptions, the amount of Internet usage in Iran diminished by 67 percent and also mobile communication networks, including Hamrah-e Aval, Irancell, and Rightel, suffered constant disruptions.
Also, the Axios News site reported a 3,000 percent increase in the demand for and download of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) in the country.
Net Blocks, warned of internet disruption in the Amir Kabir University in Tehran, and internet shut down of “Mobin Net”, one of the largest internet companies across Iran.
In the first days of the nationwide protests, Elon Musk, the owner of Starlink, promised satellite Internet for all Iranians. After his comment, the site of Mr. Musk’s company was filtered in Iran.
Also, the text messages containing Mahsa Amini’s name were filtered and blocked by the Hamrah-e Aval Telecommunication Network.
During this period, various human rights groups issued statements and expressed their concern about the Internet shutdown in Iran and its repercussions.
On Monday, September 24, the Tejarat News Web site reported in a news story that after reviewing the economic consequences of the internet outage in Iran it concluded that the livelihoods of about 10 million Iranians are in jeopardy just because of the lack of access to Instagram. However, Issa Zarepour, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology announced the establishment of new filters indefinitely.
According to many experts, many online businesses are on the verge of bankruptcy, and eight hours of daily Internet outage has caused a lot of financial hardship to Iranian economy.
Hamshahri newspaper reported in a news story that nine million Iranian citizens who have chosen Instagram as their preferred method to do business have faced serious challenges after the regime began filtering Instagram.
It also became apparent that Islamic Republic disrupts satellite signals of international satellite TV channels.
The French company Eutelsat announced in a statement on October 6 that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been sending jammers to its two satellites for the past 10 days.
Eutelsat announced that, in addition to Persian-language radio and television channels abroad, these jammers also disrupt several other channels.

Activists in the field of information

Another group that was arrested by the security and law enforcement agencies was comprised of journalists and other members of the media. They were arrested for the sole purpose of preventing any dissemination of information on the protests. The following 61 profiles include journalists who ran afoul of the authorities and were put in prison for simply doing their jobs.
Javad Heidarian, Khosrow Kurdpour, Masoud Kordpour, Yalda Moiri, Niloufar Hamedi, Alireza Khoshbakht, Ruhollah Nakhei, Mojtaba Rahimi, Yashar Soltani Fatemeh Rajabi, Alireza Jabari, Payam Khodabande, Batoul Balali, Samira Alinejad, Jabar Dastbaz, Navid Jamshidi, Elahe Mohammadi, Marzieh Talaei, Ali Khatibzadeh, Iman Behpasand, Vida Rabani, Ahmadreza Halabisaz, Mehrnoush Tafian, Mahmoud Shahriari, Farshid Ghorbanpour, Aria Jafari, Alborz Nezami, Ali Salem, Shahram Azmoudeh, Adel Karimi, Farkhondeh Ashoori, Mandana Sadeqi, Reza Mohammadi, Hossein Esmaeili, Vahid Shadman, Ehsan Pirbarnash, Saeideh Fathi, Vahid Shamsaldin-Nejad, Marzieh Amiri, Afshin Gholami, Pouria Mahdavi Moghadam, Fardin Kamangar, Farzaneh Yahya-Abadi, Maryam Mazroui, Maliheh (Zahra) Darki, Yaghma Fashkhani, Nazila Maroufian, Nasrin Hasani, Somayeh Masroor, Fahimeh Nazari, Taiebeh Sadat Mirhosseini, Parisa Parvaneh, Davood Davoodi, Reza Asadabadi, Mehdi Amirpour, Maryam Vahidian, Somayeh Masroor, Sajjad Rahmani, Nastaran Ferkhe, Hossein Yazdi, Esfandiar Fathi