Iran has restricted major social media platforms following the ongoing protest in Iran, because of the death of Masha Amini who was arrested in Tehran for allegedly wearing ‘an unsuitable attire’ and putting on her hijab headscarf improperly.
The country curbed access to Instagram and WhatsApp, according to residents and internet observer NetBlocks.
NetBlocks also reported a “nation-scale loss of connectivity” on Iran’s main mobile telephone provider and another company’s network leaving millions of Iranians offline.
WhatsApp’s servers were disrupted on multiple internet providers, hours after Instagram’s services were blocked, London-based NetBlocks said.
Without the use of the internet, citizens are unable to send out videos and pictures of what is going on.
Authorities claimed that Masha Amini had a stroke and heart attack while she was detained at the “guidance centre” and died days later after being transferred to the hospital.
Her family denied the claims by the Iranian authorities, saying she did not have any pre-existing condition
Social media websites such as TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are routinely blocked in parts of the Islamic Region. But tech-savvy residents often use virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass the curbs.
Netblocks also report that this is the ‘most severe’ outage since the internet was blocked during 2019’s fuel protests.