The latest unrest in Iran is about something far more serious than rising gasoline prices. The proof is that, over the weekend, the regime took most of the country offline.
NetBlocks, a nongovernmental organization that monitors digital rights, says that by Saturday, Iran's internet connectivity was 5 percent of what it was earlier in the week. The clampdown began Friday, coinciding with demonstrations and protests throughout Iran, with intermittent outages in major cities such as Tehran and Shiraz. By Saturday, the group said, it had "proceeded to a disconnection of all mobile networks followed by a near-total national internet and telecommunication blackout."
And yet the images from inside the country have kept coming. In the past few days, the rest of the world has been able to see videos from inside the country showing mass demonstrations and at times violent crackdowns from security services.