Roughly six months have passed since the beginning of the biggest wave of protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Jhina Amini, under the banner of Woman, Life, Freedom. Protests have become more dispersed and less-frequent in recent weeks, as a result we are observing fewer major internet disruptions and shutdowns.
However, Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan and Baluchestan is one of the few cities in Iran witnessing more frequent protests. For the past few weeks protests have been taking place in Zahedan on Fridays, coinciding with the timing of the Friday prayers. This was the case on Friday, 24 February when Sistan and Baluchestan was almost entirely cut-off from the internet following protests that lasted the entire day. As expected, there was no official confirmation or explanation on the internet shutdown by government authorities.
From 18 February, over the course of three days CloudFlare Radar showed a major reduction in traffic coming from Iran on three AS’s in particular: AS197207 which belongs to Hamrah-e-Aval or MCI, AS44244 which belongs to Irancell, and AS58224 which belongs to the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI).
Minor Disruptions:
These are some of the other disruptions observed during February. Officials in Iran did not provide an explanation for any of these disruptions.
- February 1 and 2: According to IODA data, there was an internet disruption in the city of Qom on this date.
- February 6: According to IODA data, there was an internet disruption in Markazi province.
- February 7: According to IODA data, there was an internet disruption in Kermanshah province.
- February 14: According to IODA data, there was an internet disruption in Golestan province.
- February 20: According to IODA data, there was an internet disruption in East Azerbaijan province.
- February 23: According to IODA data, there was an internet disruption in Ardabil province.
