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The full extent of Iran’s crackdown on unrest isn’t yet known. Reports suggest that hundreds of protesters have been killed and many more injured. But an internet blackout, imposed by a desperate regime intent on clinging to power, means that only limited information is coming out.
But it is coming out, via Iranians able to circumvent the measures to get news, images and video to the wider world.
Shirvin Zeinalzadeh, who studies the impact of media on collective action in Iran, explains how social media has been crucial in spreading what began as a strike at a bazaar over inflation and the collapse of the local currency into arguably the biggest challenge that the Islamic Republic has faced since its inception during the 1979 revolution.
And while Iranians inside the country continue to take to the streets, the country’s diaspora has taken to its phones, using social media to make sure the eyes of the world continue to focus on events in Tehran and elsewhere.
The blackout could backfire on the Iranian authorities, Zeinalzadeh argues: “If, once lifted, it results in a surge of messages and visual evidence, then it may only serve to inflame a second wave of international scrutiny and provoke stronger reactions from both external actors and people in Iran seeing the images for the first time.”
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Matt Williams
Senior International Editor
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Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran on Jan. 9, 2026.
MAHSA/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Shirvin Zeinalzadeh, Arizona State University
Information is still getting out despite an almost total internet blackout, especially with the help of diaspora groups. That poses a big problem for the government.
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