On Thursday (8th January) night, thousands of protesters in Tehran and other cities flocked to the streets, resulting in an internet shutdown as telephone lines went dark throughout Iran. The action took place as late Shah’s exiled son, crown prince Reza Pahlavi, called for agitation on Thursday and Friday at 8 pm local time.

The protests, which have lacked a clear leade,r responded to Pahlavi’s appeal as witnesses reported that chanting broke out in neighbourhoods throughout Tehran as locals raised “Death to the dictator” and “Death to the Islamic Republic,” among other slogans. “This is the last battle, Pahlavi will return,” declared others, praising the shah. Streets were visibly packed with people before the communication was snapped.

Afterwards, Pahlavi criticised the government’s move and wrote, “Millions of Iranians demanded their freedom tonight. In response, the regime in Iran has cut all lines of communication. It has shut down the Internet. It has cut landlines. It may even attempt to jam satellite signals.” He had mentioned that his further plans would be based on how his message was received.

The internet company CloudFlare and the advocacy group NetBlocks both reported the outage and blamed Iranian government meddling for the same. It was impossible to connect landlines and mobile phones from Dubai to Iran. Intense government crackdowns have previously followed such disruptions.

NetBlocks alongside the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Internet Outage Detection and Analysis database reported a dramatic and nearly complete decline in Iranian internet connectivity levels on Thursday afternoon as the demonstrations intensified. According to the data, the nation is primarily offline.

As protests reached their 12th day, people in Tehran rallied in the streets and shouted from their houses, signifying an upsurge in the unrest as resentment about living expenses, jobs along with inflation spread in the nation like wildfire, and eventually led to the demand for the removal of the Islamic regime. Calls in favour of the Shah have been heard during protests, which in the past, might have ended in the death penalty.

Furthermore, shopkeepers in Kurdish regions and hundreds of other Iranian towns closed their doors in response to demands for a general strike by seven Kurdish political groups. On the other hand, Hengaw rights group accused authorities in the towns of Kermanshah and Kamyaran of opening fire on protesters, hurting multiple people. Meanwhile, protesters in the southern province of Fars demolished the statue of Qassem Suleimani, a former top Revolutionary Guards al-Quds force commander who was revered by government as a legendary hero, amid thunderous applause.

More marketplaces and bazaars closed in support of the demonstrators as the protests that originated in the metropolis and rural areas reached all 31 provinces without any inkling of cooling down. According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, at least 42 people have died and over 2,270 others have been arrested as a result of violence surrounding the uprising.

Masoud Pezeshkian, the president of Iran, urged moderation in the handling of the protests on Thursday. In a statement posted on his website, he recommended “utmost restraint” and “dialogue, engagement, and listening to the people’s demands,” stressing that “any violent or coercive behaviour should be avoided.”

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