Iran to consider lifting internet ban as state TV appears to have been hacked

DUBAI – Iran may

lift its internet blackout

in a few days, a senior Parliament member said on Jan 19,

after the authorities shut communications

while they used massive force to crush protests in the worst domestic unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In the latest sign of weakness in the authorities’ control, state television appeared to be hacked late on Jan 18, briefly showing speeches by US President Donald Trump and the exiled son of Iran’s last shah calling on the public to revolt.

Iran’s streets have

largely been quiet

for a week since anti-government protests that began in late December were put down in three days of mass violence.

An Iranian official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the confirmed death toll

was more than 5,000

, including 500 members of the security forces, with some of the worst unrest taking place in ethnic Kurdish areas in the north-west. Western-based Iranian rights groups also say thousands were killed.

Opponents accuse the authorities of opening fire on peaceful demonstrators to crush dissent. Iran’s clerical rulers say armed crowds egged on by foreign enemies attacked hospitals and mosques.

The death tolls dwarf those of previous bouts of anti-government unrest put down by the authorities in 2022 and 2009. The violence drew repeated threats from Mr Trump to intervene militarily, although he has backed off since the large-scale killing stopped.

Internet to return when ‘conditions are appropriate’

The head of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Mr Ebrahim Azizi, said top security bodies would decide on restoring internet in the coming days, with service resuming “as soon as security conditions are appropriate”.

Another MP, hardliner Hamid Rasaei, said the authorities should have listened to earlier complaints by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei about “lax cyberspace”.

Iranian communications, including internet and international phone lines, were largely stopped in the days leading up to the worst unrest. The blackout has since been partially eased, allowing accounts of widespread attacks on protesters to emerge.

During the apparent hack into state television on Jan 18, screens broadcast a segment lasting several minutes with the on-screen headline “The real news of the Iranian national revolution”.

It included messages from Mr Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s last shah, calling for an uprising to overthrow rule by the Shi’ite Muslim clerics who have run the country since the 1979 revolution that toppled his father.

Mr Pahlavi has emerged as a prominent opposition voice and has said he plans to return to Iran, although it is difficult to assess independently

how strong support for him is inside Iran

. REUTERS