Iran's nationwide Internet blackout remained largely in place as the reported death toll from recent protests continued to rise, with one account saying the number of fatalities may exceed 30,000.
The digital rights watchdog NetBlocks said on January 25 that Iran’s Internet shutdown has now passed 400 hours, adding that "brief connectivity spikes" may give a false impression of wider restoration. It said circumvention tools such as VPNs have allowed limited online communication.
Human rights groups say the blackout has hampered protesters' ability to organize and restricted the flow of information, making independent verification of casualties difficult.
The US-based rights organization HRANA, whose figures RFE/RL has been regularly citing since the violent crackdown began in Iran earlier this month, says its confirmed death toll is now 5,459, and the number of fatalities still under investigation is 17,031.
However, a report published by Time magazine says the number of fatalities in the Iran protests may exceed 30,000, according to two senior Iranian health officials it spoke to.
The report, published on January 25, says the majority of deaths occurred during January 8–9, when the government's crackdown on nationwide protests reached its peak. Due to intense censorship and the prolonged Internet shutdown, reported death toll figures for the protests cannot be independently verified.
The toll reported by Time sharply contradicts the official death toll of 3,117 announced by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, but aligns more closely with international estimates.
The United Nations has suggested significantly higher casualties, and Mai Sato, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said on January 22 that the number of civilians killed could exceed 20,000 as reports from doctors continue to surface. Amnesty International has described the killings as occurring on an “unprecedented scale.”
Additional details have emerged about injuries sustained during the crackdown.
Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency reported that Qasem Fakhrayi, head of Tehran’s Farabi Hospital, said the number of patients with pellet-related eye injuries surged to around 1,000 on January 9, compared with about 55 cases in the preceding days. Nearly 200 injured people were transferred to other hospitals due to capacity constraints.
Maryam Sabbaghi, the hospital’s head nurse, said all beds were filled, stretchers were borrowed from another facility, and patients were placed in hallways.
The economic impact of the shutdown has also deepened.
Majidreza Hariri, head of the Iran–China Chamber of Commerce, said merchants have been allowed to access the Internet for only 20 minutes a day under official supervision, a level he said was insufficient for conducting business. Ali Hakim-Javadi, head of Iran’s Computer Trade Organization, said the shutdown is causing 20–30 trillion rials ($18–28 million at the current free-market rate) in daily losses.
Separately, the Coordinating Council of Teachers’ Trade Associations has published the names of more than 40 students it said were killed during the crackdown, citing information it said it got from trusted sources. The umbrella body of independent teachers’ unions in Iran says the list will be updated gradually.
Meanwhile, the violence has drawn criticism from a senior Sunni cleric inside Iran. Molavi Abdolhamid Esmailzehi, the Friday prayer leader in Zahedan, called the killings a “systematic massacre.”
“This tragedy has created a deep and irreparable rift between the people of Iran and the ruling establishment,” he said.
