Ahead of protests in Iran and dissident social media calls for demonstrations, the Iranian regime has “restricted mobile internet access in several provinces.” Some of those calls on social media are from family members of demonstrators, who lost loved ones during “the bloodiest crackdown on demonstrators in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic” in November. Over 200 people were murdered by the regime. The fear is that another “horrific killing spree” may be in the offing.
The barbarity of the Islamic Republic of Iran should serve as a stark reminder of how Sharia regimes behave when opposed, and of the worrying direction that Western nations are taking when they allow in migrants bringing the values of Islamic supremacism, including the curbing of the freedom of speech. The Iranian dissidents are paying for the price of their lives for that freedom and others. The Obama Administration made disastrous concessions to the ruthless Iranian regime in signing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the Iran nuclear deal). This is the same monstrous regime with which Canadian Liberal MP Majid Jowhari wants Canada to re-open diplomatic ties.
“Iran curbs internet before possible new protests: reports,” Reuters, December 25, 2019:
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s authorities have restricted mobile internet access in several provinces, an Iranian news agency reported on Wednesday, a day before new protests were expected to kick off following calls for demonstrations on social media.
Social media posts, along with some relatives of people killed in unrest last month, have called for renewed protests and for ceremonies to commemorate the dead to be held on Thursday.
State media, meanwhile, said intelligence ministry agents had seized a cache of 126 mostly U.S.-made guns smuggled to the central city of Isfahan from abroad.
The protests were initially sparked in November by hikes in gasoline prices but demonstrators quickly expanded their demands to cover calls for more political freedom and other issues.
The government, which launched the bloodiest crackdown on demonstrators in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic, blamed foreign enemies for stoking tensions.
An official denied any order by the authorities to block the internet, which was shutdown for about a week in the November unrest. A news agency also cited mobile operators saying their services had not been disrupted.
The semi-official news agency ILNA quoted an informed source at the Communications and Information Technology Ministry as saying mobile internet access to overseas sites was blocked by “security authorities” in Alborz, Kurdestan and Zanjan provinces in central and western Iran and Fars in the south.
“According to this source, it is possible that more provinces will be affected by the shutdown of mobile international connectivity,” ILNA said.
Internet blockage observatory NetBlocks said on Twitter: “Confirmed: Evidence of mobile internet disruption in parts of #Iran …real-time network data show two distinct drops in connectivity this morning amid reports of regional outages; incident ongoing.”
The shutdown appeared to be spreading….