Internet shutdown in Iran; “We are all fine, but don’t believe it”

Javad Zarif was not allowed to visit his sick friend's bedside in New York, tweeting, "I saw him in Yemen, technology." With the internet shutdown in Iran, users abroad are writing about "ignorance," and domestic journalists are seeing a diminishing horizon.

He is staring at his mobile phone screen. He has selected the video call option on WhatsApp and is waiting for his mother to pick up the phone. He has read the news of the unrest in Iran and seen several videos of fires in his city, on streets that are not unfamiliar to him. This is the umpteenth time he has tried, not only to hear his parents' voices but also to see their faces, to ease his mind a little, to hear from them what is going on in the city. The phone rings and rings, and the only thing he sees is his own face; worried, helpless, and alone. Whoever he calls, he only sees himself on the screen.

Nahid is not the only Iranian who is concerned about Iran and the events taking place in that country these days.

With the recent unrest in Iran escalating, which began with a rise in gasoline prices, the government has almost completely cut off Iranian users' access to the internet. The reason for this drastic action may be seen in the government's fear of the power to organize protests via the internet, or in preventing the publication of images and writings about the current mood.

Domestic websites have written about the losses and damages that the internet outage has caused to the commercial, industrial, and tourism sectors, but not about the release of the "giant of ignorance" that, as if it emerged from a magic lamp with the internet outage, has engulfed Iran like a cloud.

A whirlwind of activity on social networks such as Twitter and Instagram shows what ignorance has brought to the lives of citizens.

Ignorance of Iran and the new meaning of "foreignness"

There are many Iranian citizens living abroad who have written on Twitter about the alienation they have suddenly felt. One user wrote: “This is what ‘stranger in exile’ must be like. Not knowing about home, as if everything has become one-sided, not knowing about friends and family, and not knowing about Iran.” For many Iranian citizens living in other countries, it is only with this disconnection that geographical distances have gained meaning; distances that cyberspace had made colorless.

Now, with the internet almost completely cut off, it is as if millions of people are trapped in a narrow glass window that has been smoked all around. Everyone is peering into this dark and murky window “from the outside” to see something, to see with their own eyes, to believe that what the “Western and foreign media” write and say based on the few photos and videos that have been published is “abuse,” “exaggeration,” and “conspiracy.” But instead of cleaning the window, instead of allowing the free flow of information to give viewers and readers the power to discern and discern, the government is tightening the noose.

In such an environment where bridges have been dismantled and Iran has become as distant and inaccessible as its geographical distance, the atmosphere of ignorance and trickle-down information leaks multiply the "catastrophic dimensions" of every piece of news and image.

Nahid's phone rings. It's her father's number. Now the faces of her parents are imprinted on the magic screen again. They both have smiles on their faces and the mother immediately says, "We were constantly dialing, and now our internet connection has been restored. If it goes down, then we're all good." The father doesn't speak, his hand under his chin, staring at his daughter, as if he doesn't want to waste a moment, as if he doesn't trust the connection again. The mother speaks, says everything is calm, but shakes her head and gestures, "You don't believe it." The connection is cut off. The parents are dragged back down into the dark dungeon.

What we don't see is called "family discord."

History repeats itself. Like the scenes from the movie “The Lovely Bones.” It’s as if this is the fate of a nation that has grown accustomed to telling its relatives and loved ones on the other side of the world, over the phone, Skype, WhatsApp, etc., every few years, “Everything is fine,” and they hear that “it’s a lie.”

A user wrote on Twitter: “Our story, no matter how bitter, is a family dispute.” In this statement, an Iranian living abroad is not part of the family. Another user wrote in response to this user: “The father of the family is a bully and beats his children under any pretext or even rapes them. You advise him not to ask for help from anyone, hoping that the father will get better.”

Preventing the leak of accurate information about this "family dispute" has caused the glass jar to explode.

Internet shutdown and its consequences from the perspective of domestic journalists

There are many journalists and reporters inside Iran who are also writing about the problems caused by the internet shutdown and its consequences for news reporting and people's trust in the media. If one group thinks that the internet shutdown can restore authority to the domestic media, reading the opinions of the other group proves the opposite.

Omid Tosheh wrote on Twitter: “Without free internet, it’s like we’re all imprisoned.” Another journalist, Mohammad Mosaed, wrote on Twitter: “Without internet, metropolises have become thousands of small, densely packed villages. When communication tools are cut off, the horizon of vision is reduced to a few meters, and it doesn’t matter how many kilometers you are or how many thousand kilometers away.” Afshin Amirshahi, another journalist, summarized the results of “internet shutdowns and what-to-write-what-not” as follows: “Deprivation of authority from domestic newspapers and news agencies and distrust of domestic newspapers.”

People looking for new ways to communicate

Domestic news agencies are active; they write about the destruction, about the “rioters,” and about the insurance company paying for the damages, saying, “Everything is under control,” “The city is safe and secure.” In the “several-meter horizon” created by ignorance, what cannot be verified is the city’s “safety and security.”

It is unclear to what extent and for how long the Iranian government is determined to completely cut off millions of Iranians from the world, but the reality is that a people who have grown up in a world of communication for decades cannot be forever confined. “My mother knew about proxies and is now learning how to access the Internet through SSH tunnels and so on,” writes one user.

“Thank you technology”

The internet disconnects and reconnects.

A tweet from Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is circulating, writing: "Thanks to technology, I was able to see and talk to my 40-year-old friend and Iran's envoy to the United Nations, who is now here, a few hundred meters away in a hospital in New York."