Internet disruption reported in southeast Iran amid unrest

Iran's impoverished southeast experienced wide disruptions of internet service over the past week, internet experts said Saturday, as unrest gripped the remote province after a string of fatal border shootings.

Several rights groups reported in a joint statement that authorities shut down the mobile data network in the restive provinces of Sistan and Baluchistan, calling the disruptions an apparent “tool to conceal” the government's harsh crackdown on protests convulsing the area.

The reports of internet interference come as Iranian authorities and semi-official news agencies increasingly acknowledge the turmoil challenging local authorities in the southeast — a highly sensitive matter in a country that seeks to repress all hints of political dissent.

For three days starting Wednesday, the government shut down the mobile data network across Sistan and Baluchistan, where 96 percent of the population accesses the internet only through their phones, rights groups said, crippling the key communication tool. Residents reported a restoration of internet access early Saturday.

“This is Iran's traditional response to any kind of protest,” Amir Rashidi from Miaan Group, a human rights organization that focuses on digital security in the Middle East, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

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“Shutting down the internet to block news and pictures getting out makes (authorities) feel more comfortable opening fire.” The week saw a series of escalating confrontations between police and protesters. Crowds with light arms and grenade launchers descended on Kurin checkpoint near Iran's border with Pakistan on Thursday, Abouzar Mehdi Nakhaie, the governor of Zahedan, the provincial capital, said in comments carried by Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency. One policeman was killed, he added.

Earlier this week, protesters attacked the district governor's office and stormed two police stations in the city of Saravan, outraged over the shootings of fuel smugglers trying to cross back into Iran from Pakistan on Monday. The government said at least two people were killed in the border shootings and ensuing clashes. Many rights activists in the area reported higher death tolls without offering evidence.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, vowed Friday to investigate the deaths. Officials insisted that calm had returned to the streets.

The Iranian government previously has cut off internet access and cellphone service in tense times. In the fall of 2019, for instance, Iran imposed a near nationwide internet blackout as anti-government protests sparked by an increase in fuel prices roiled the capital of Tehran and other cities. Hundreds were reportedly killed in the crackdown nationwide.

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NetBlocks, which monitors worldwide internet access, called the reports of disruption “credible,” but couldn't provide verification.

Given that authorities targeted the mobile network and not the landline, the disruption likely wouldn't appear on regular network data, said Mahsa Alimardani, researcher at Article 19, an international organization that fights censorship. The area already suffered from unreliable internet connections.

"This targeted shutdown was very intentional because they knew the realities of this province,” where people are poor and buy cheap phones as opposed to computers, Alimardani said.

Sistan and Baluchistan Province is one of most unstable and least developed parts of Iran. The relationship between its predominantly Sunni residents and Iran's Shiite theocracy long has been fraught. The Baluchis of Iran make up the ranks of a low-level violent insurgency involving several militant groups, including those demanding more autonomy for the region.

The area also lies on a major trafficking route for drugs and petrol, which is highly subsidised in Iran and a key source of income for smugglers.