Iran maintains a blockade on WhatsApp and Instagram

Iran will continue to restrict access to Instagram and WhatsApp, the country’s president Ebrahim Raisi announced on Wednesday.

The messaging and social media platforms have been blocked for several months amid unprecedented anti-government protests.

Instagram and WhatsApp, both owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, were the “origins of insecurity…during the recent riots” in Iran, Raisi claimed.

The blockade comes on the same day hundreds of international figures issued a joint appeal, expressing their “unwavering” support for Iranians who oppose the regime.

Iran has been swept by a wave of unrest since September following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by police.

Iranian authorities reacted furiously to the demonstrations, blocking internet access and cracking down on demonstrators.

Raisi, an ex-hardline lawyer, acknowledged that the internet disruptions caused “discontent” in his speech on Tuesday night.

Many Iranians are hoping for restrictions to be eased as street protests ease, while those outside the country remain frustrated and concerned about the continued difficulty in contacting their loved ones.

In January, former government spokesman Ali Rabii warned that some “three million businesses and the employment of 12 million people” depend on internet access.

Employees in Iran, including those within government departments, have reported spending large amounts of time at work with nothing to do amid the internet shutdowns.

Instagram and WhatsApp were the most used applications since YouTube, Facebook, Telegram, Twitter and Tiktok platforms were blocked in recent years.

Even before the protests, internet access in Iran was heavily restricted. However, large numbers of Iranians use VPNs to access web pages hosted outside the country, new restrictions have made it increasingly difficult to use the tools.

On Wednesday, 480 international figures – from Nobel laureates to actors – issued a statement stressing that protesters in Iran “deserve the unwavering support of the world’s lovers of freedom”.

They were published by the US-based NGO Freedom House and claimed: “Iran’s triumph of freedom could revive the global wave of democratization that was so strong in the late 20th century but has weakened in the face of the counter-movement. authoritarian attack”.

The global names – including Nobel Prize-winning Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and actor Richard Gere – emphasized their support for Iranian women.

They underlined that “the end of the Islamic Republic’s misogyny system would mark a global turning point in the long march towards a world where women are treated equally”.

Young women have played a central role in the demonstrations that first targeted Iran’s strict Islamic dress code, which is deeply unpopular with large segments of the population.

Amini was arrested for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly and not wearing skinny jeans.