Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s son and adviser, Yousef Pezeshkian, called for the immediate restoration of internet service on his Telegram channel as the regime’s nationwide internet blackout hit the two-week mark.
“Maintaining the internet blockade will generate discontent and widen the gap between the people and the government,” Pezeshkian said. He warned that cutting connectivity posed a greater risk of instability than allowing access, adding that restrictions would only delay unrest rather than prevent it.
Authorities severed most internet access on January 8 following the circulation of videos showing street demonstrations that turned violent.
Officials said the blackout was necessary to prevent the spread of protest footage. Since then, only a handful of government-approved sites remained accessible, hampering daily life and disrupting large segments of the economy.
“My entire work depends on the internet; I can’t imagine surviving without a connection,” Amir, an Iranian content creator, told the Guardian.
Telecommunications Minister Ehsan Chitsaz estimated the outage cost Iran between 4 trillion and 6 trillion rials per day (approximately $3 million to $4 million). The internet-monitoring group NetBlocks placed the daily loss even higher, at more than $37 million.
Criticism has grown among establishment figures. “The government in Iran is losing its original meaning. In no area can it be said the government is active, present and solving problems,” reformist politician Gholamhossein Karbaschi told the Guardian. Sunni cleric Molavi Abdolhamid described the government’s response to protests as “an organised massacre,” the outlet reported.
Rights groups say the death toll far exceeds official figures. The Iran Human Rights Activists News Agency reported 5,848 killed and 41,283 detained, according to Gazete Oksijen.
Hospitals in Tehran report overwhelming injuries
Hospitals in Tehran and other cities remained overwhelmed. “Staff have performed over 1,000 emergency eye surgeries since protests began,” said Dr. Ghasem Fakhraei of a major Tehran hospital. Medical corridors, already strained by the lingering impact of COVID-19, were flooded with trauma cases and detainees held under guard. The internet blackout also prevented families from locating missing relatives or receiving medical updates.
The blackout has also prevented families from locating missing relatives or obtaining medical information. Workarounds such as virtual private networks and messaging apps - once used to bypass online restrictions - have failed under the latest shutdown.
On his Telegram channel, Pezeshkian warned that the blackout not only exacerbated economic hardship but also encouraged conspiracy theories surrounding casualty figures and forced dissent underground.
Hard-line lawmakers argued that connectivity should resume only after unrest is suppressed. Moderates, however, pointed to the economic impact and diplomatic fallout.
Several Western tech companies began shuttering accounts linked to Iranian universities and publishers over compliance issues.
Iranian diaspora communities increasingly relied on satellite and short-wave radio to receive news from home, and analysts noted that even a controlled reopening carried risks. “The first images to emerge will likely depict January’s bloodshed and public anger,” one said.
Iran’s Interior Ministry has not responded to Pezeshkian’s intervention. But with economic losses mounting and internal dissent laid bare, Iran’s leadership must now weigh whether continued isolation is worth the cost of delaying the next wave of images from reaching the outside world.