The ”Women, Life, Freedom” movement is approaching its seven month mark and we are continuing to see people in Sistan and Baluchistan protesting after every Friday prayer ceremony. IODA data demonstrate a clear pattern of internet disruptions and sometimes near-total shutdowns in the province on Fridays. In particular, the province’s capital city, Zahedan, faces the most disruptions in response to popular protests there.
Every Friday, just as Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi (a prominent Sunni cleric) of the Makki Mosque in Zahedan begins his speech, authorities readily disrupt access to the internet. In a departure from the mobile data shutdown patterns we’ve witnessed over the past several months, we are now seeing fixed internet also be cut on Fridays in Zahedan as well.
Given that Abdolhamid broadcasts his speeches live on his Instagram and YouTube accounts, it seems that the purpose of the internet shutdowns is to prevent the publication of his message and speech
Chaharshanbe Suri Internet Disruptions
Another significant disruption coincided with Chaharshanbe Suri, a traditional festival celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday of the Persian calendar year involving dancing and jumping over fire.
Anonymous groups welcomed Chaharshanbe Suri with a call to protest under the banner of “Three Nights of Fire”. Likely as a result of this call, on 12 March, sixteen provinces across Iran experienced a range of internet connectivity issues as disruptions to near-total shutdowns plagued the internet. The provinces affected include Sistan and Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Fars, Yazd, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Hamedan, Kermanshah, Kordestan, Zanjan, West Azerbaijan, Ardebil, Golestan, North Khorasan, Tehran and Alborz. Among them, Sistan and Baluchestan, and Kurdistan experienced conditions close to a total shutdown.
On 12 March at around 17:00 local time in Iran, IODA data showed a huge dip on active probing, indicating an outage.
Operators that caused most of this issue were AS12880 of Information Technology Company (ITC), AS1756 of Shiraz Hamyar Co, AS58224 of Iran Telecommunication Company PJS, and AS16322 of Pars Online.
On March 14 Information Technology Company (ITC) on AS12880 experienced an outage. IODA data shows a big dip in the graph below.
According to reports from Iranian users, MCI caused the most disruptions in Tehran city center.
