Nationwide internet blackout in Iran as protests grow

A nationwide blackout in Iran was reported on Thursday, internet monitoring group NetBlocks said, as protests over economic hardship continued across the country.

No further information about the internet outage was immediately available.

Witnesses in the capital Tehran and the major cities of Mashhad and Isfahan told Reuters that protesters gathered in the streets again on Thursday, chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic’s clerical rulers.

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late Shah of Iran who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, called in a video post on X on Wednesday for more protests.

Social media posts, which could not be independently verified by Reuters, said protesters chanted pro-Pahlavi slogans in several cities and towns across Iran.

However, Iranian state media reported that cities across the country were calm.

Reading: Riots in Iran intensify, two security personnel killed and 30 injured

The current protests, the biggest wave of dissent in three years, began last month in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar with shopkeepers denouncing the free fall of the rial currency.

Since then, unrest has spread across the country, amid deepening anxiety over economic deprivations resulting from skyrocketing inflation driven by mismanagement and Western sanctions and curtailment of political and social freedoms.

President Massoud Pezeskian warned domestic suppliers against hoarding or overpricing goods, state media reported earlier Thursday.

“People should not feel lack in terms of supply and distribution of goods,” he said, calling on his government to ensure adequate supply of goods and price monitoring across the country.

Tehran remains under international pressure with US President Donald Trump threatening to help protesters if security forces open fire on them, seven months after Israeli and US forces bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities.