Iran hit by internet blackout as Pahlavi calls for mass protests

WISE NEWS PRESS / TEHRAN, IRAN

Iran has been plunged into a near-total nationwide internet and telephone blackout as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Tehran and other major cities on Thursday night, responding to a call for mass mobilization by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.

Independent monitoring groups, including NetBlocks and Cloudflare, confirmed the collapse of connectivity across the Islamic Republic late January 8, attributing the outage to government interference. The digital shutdown, which also severed landline and mobile phone connections from abroad, follows twelve days of escalating unrest initially sparked by the record collapse of the Iranian rial but which has since transformed into a broad challenge against the country's theocratic leadership.

Pahlavi’s "Last Battle" and the street response

Responding to a designated 8:00 p.m. local time call to action, residents in several Tehran neighborhoods were seen gathering in the streets and shouting slogans from rooftops. Crowds chanted "Death to the dictator" and "This is the last battle; Pahlavi will return," marking a significant test of the exiled prince's influence on the domestic protest movement.

In a statement released shortly before the blackout, Reza Pahlavi urged Iranians to form a "united front" and warned the Revolutionary Guard that the world is watching. "Million of Iranians demanded their freedom tonight. In response, the regime has cut all lines of communication," Pahlavi stated via social media platforms, slamming the Khamenei regime for attempting to create an information vacuum.

Mounting casualties and security crackdown

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on January 8 that the death toll from the ongoing unrest has reached at least 39, with more than 2,260 individuals detained across 31 provinces. While the movement remains largely leaderless on the ground, the widespread closure of bazaars and markets in cities like Tabriz and Mashhad indicates growing civil disobedience.

Iranian authorities have responded with increasingly blunt measures. Hardline media outlets have suggested that security forces are deploying surveillance drones to identify and track protesters in the darkness. Human rights groups fear that the current communication blackout may be a precursor to a more violent security intervention, similar to crackdowns seen in 2019 and 2022.

International warnings: Trump and the EU

The escalation has drawn sharp warnings from Washington and Brussels. President Donald Trump reiterated on Thursday that the United States is "locked and loaded" and would hit Iran "very hard" if the regime begins mass killings of peaceful protesters. Trump praised the "brave people" of Iran, stating that their suppression would not go unanswered.

In Europe, Parliament President Roberta Metsola expressed solidarity with the demonstrators, stating that the "cries for freedom, dignity, and the right to choose" are being heard globally. Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has dismissed these international statements as "hypocritical interference" in the country's domestic affairs, describing the situation as a "full-fledged economic war" waged by foreign powers.

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Source: Euronews