Iranian footballer detained in protests charged with death penalty offence

Thousands of diaspora users have downloaded and run an application called Psiphon Conduit that allows them to securely share part of their bandwidth with the widely popular censorship circumvention tool Psiphon, helping users inside Iran maintain access to it.

By leaving unused phones or computers connected to home Wi-Fi networks and power, they have created small, fragile bridges that help keep Psiphon reachable from inside Iran.

In recent days, many Iranians who had been offline since the shutdown began January 8 have managed to contact relatives and friends via WhatsApp and Telegram or publish posts on social media after nearly two weeks of silence.

The closure coincided with two days of mass killings of protestors by security forces.

Psiphon

Much of the recent connectivity has been enabled by Psiphon Conduit, an application designed to function during severe censorship and shutdowns.

In recent days, many diaspora users with unlimited internet access have installed Psiphon Conduit and kept spare devices continuously connected. Inside Iran, users searching for a connection are automatically matched with these external helpers, allowing limited access to the global internet.

Each external user can enable access for roughly 25 people, albeit at low speeds.

The connection is considered relatively secure because traffic ultimately exits through Psiphon servers, meaning neither the Iranian user’s IP address nor the intermediary’s IP address is directly exposed.

According to Psiphon’s official website, Iran currently has more Psiphon users than any other country.

On January 22, more than half of the 2.8 million recorded Psiphon Conduit connection attempts originated from Iran. At the time of writing, more than 40,000 Iranian users were connected simultaneously, according to the site’s live data.

Other means, brief openings

Some users inside Iran report occasional success using the Tor Project’s Snowflake feature, Lantern’s unbounded mode, or WireGuard-based tools, though speeds are often extremely slow and unreliable.

Others say that, at times, unfiltered international internet access briefly becomes available on certain mobile operators in specific provinces. These short windows may be the result of technical glitches or testing of filtering methods, allowing users momentary passage through the state-imposed digital barrier.

The government has effectively sealed Iran’s internet by blocking international gateways and many VPN protocols. Under these conditions, traffic cannot normally leave the country, while limited domestic connectivity—such as banks, government services, and some content delivery networks—remains active.

Tools like Psiphon Conduit exploit narrow pathways that cannot be fully closed without disrupting the state’s own systems. They disguise encrypted traffic as ordinary web activity and route it through these small openings.

When shutdowns occur, users who already have the application installed do not need to download anything new; traffic begins flowing through whatever cracks remain.

This access, however, is far from comprehensive. Telegram or X may load sporadically, images and videos upload slowly, and connections frequently drop and reconnect.

Life online remains unstable

On Friday, Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said global internet access would be restored within 24 hours. Still, the closure continues.

Currently, the only access provided to users inside the country is to a highly unstable, filtered intranet, largely cut off from the global network.

Users say even domestic websites and government-linked platforms frequently disconnect, making basic tasks such as banking or administrative work difficult and at times impossible.

One user wrote on X: “Living without internet access, confined to a handful of domestic media outlets and news agencies and a few foreign satellite channels, is one of the darkest human experiences."

Others say that while they are relieved to have escaped two weeks of digital darkness, gaining access to information and videos withheld during that period has also caused profound distress.

Dark days, costly workarounds

Following the internet and phone shutdowns on January 8—and the violence of that day and the next—some Iranians traveled to border regions, used SIM cards from neighboring countries or left Iran entirely to regain connectivity and share footage with the outside world.

The first video showing large numbers of bodies at the Kahrizak forensic medicine center reportedly reached media outlets days later, filmed by someone who said they had traveled more than 1,000 kilometers to access the internet. Others shared limited information using Starlink, despite significant personal risks.

According to the monitoring site Filterban (Filter Watch), more than 300 hours of internet disruption pushed international connectivity into a black market. Proxies and configurations were reportedly sold at inflated prices—up to $15 for 10 GB of access which is a huge sum in Iran—amid widespread fraud.

Economic damage

For many, internet access is not optional. Hundreds of thousands of small and home-based businesses—from handicrafts and agricultural products to online language and music lessons —have been severely disrupted or effectively shut down.

Officials have yet to present a clear plan for restoring connectivity.

Mohammad-Jafar Ghaempanah, the president’s executive deputy, has said the government itself suffers losses from internet shutdowns, acknowledged that filtering fuels public dissatisfaction, and apologized for the disruption.

At the same time, hardline figures such as Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the Kayhan newspaper, continue to advocate for permanent use of the National Information Network— an intranet system designed to sever direct, universal access to the global internet.

Its emotional sting is so sharp that Iranian state media is seeking to dismiss the heart-rending scene as a fake aimed at sapping national morale, in an effort that was refuted by online sleuths.

Filmed inside the Kahrizak forensic complex, the film shows rows of black body bags laid side by side spilling onto outside pavements on a blustery day.

The father calling out again and again to his missing son Sepehr as if he could answer as he navigates among hundreds of bodies and shrieking loved ones.

Over the course of nearly twelve minutes, the father moves through the nightmarish space, stepping past blood trails left by dragged corpses and parents opening body bags to discover slain sons.

His voice trembles as he calls out: “Sepehr, daddy's Sepehr, where are you, my son? Sepehr, get up, I’ve come for you! I’ll find you, son!”

Screams and sobs from disconsolate relatives punctuate his walk. “Khamenei, you bastard, may God curse you," he finally mumbles weakly. "Come and see what you’ve done … you’ve killed so many young people.”

The video never shows whether the father ultimately finds his son, intensifying the tragedy for many viewers.

State media pushback

Almost simultaneously with the video’s circulation, reports emerged of the death of another young protester, Sepehr Ebrahimi, a 19-year-old amateur boxer killed during protests in Andisheh town in the west of Tehran.

Iran’s state broadcaster, which has a long record of reshaping protest narratives and airing interviews with families under pressure from security agencies, aired a clearly scripted interview with Ebrahimi’s family. The segment framed the viral video as a fabrication by opposition media.

In the broadcast, Ebrahimi’s parents denied any connection to the 'Where are you, son' video, describing themselves as loyal supporters of the Islamic Republic.

His father said their son had left home only to go to a sports club and was killed “for the homeland and the Islamic system” by “rioters and terrorists.” He added that he was an active Basij member and that his brother had died in the Iran-Iraq war. Ebrahimi’s mother spoke of her son’s devotion to the Quran.

The broadcast immediately circulated online, where pro-government users used it to discredit critics and protest reporters.

One wrote: “They made Sepehr their symbol, but didn’t know he was religious, Quran-reading, an athlete — with a Basiji father and a martyr uncle. Now go look for a new project.”

Another added: “The counter-revolutionaries make a business out of people’s pain. But the voices of Sepehr’s parents were a strong slap in the face of this dark trade.”

For many Iranians, the episode recalled 2022, when state TV aired coerced statements from relatives of Nika Shakarami, a 16-year-old protester, to falsely claim she had committed suicide.

A longer cut emerges

In the initial version published by activist journalist Vahid Online, Sepehr’s surname is not mentioned. After the state TV broadcast, Vahid released a longer cut of the video containing additional audio.

In the longer cut, the father can be heard clearly saying the family name “Shokri” while searching among the bodies — confirming that the Sepehr in the video was not Sepehr Ebrahimi. Subsequently, photos of the 25-year-old Sepehr Shokri and footage of his funeral emerged on social media.

One X user noted: “The fact that the Islamic Republic could immediately find a Sepehr Ebrahimi to cover up the killing of another Sepehr shows how many bodies were there — enough to randomly pick one of the Sepehrs.”

Meanwhile, social media users examining Ebrahimi’s Instagram activity reported that he was indeed a protester and had liked posts by US-based exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi, contradicting claims that he was not a protester.

Efforts by Iran International to reach the family and ascertain whether Sepehr was found have not succeeded as an internet blackout in place since Jan. 8 persists.

For those who have watched his father's misery and shared his heartbreak, closure remains elusive.

Iran’s internet shutdown is nearing its 20th day, internet monitoring group NetBlocks said on Tuesday, with access still heavily filtered on a whitelist basis and ordinary users requiring circumvention tools.

Whitelist refers to government-approved access, often given to state media and business enterprises.

The European Union is preparing to impose sanctions on senior members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in an initial response to a deadly crackdown on mass protests, AFP reported, citing EU diplomats.

The bloc’s 27 member states are expected to approve asset freezes and visa bans on 21 individuals and entities, including high-ranking IRGC members, ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday, the diplomats said. Ambassadors are due to sign off on the measures on Wednesday.

EU ministers are also expected to agree on sanctions against 10 more individuals and entities over Iran’s supply of drones and missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine, AFP reported.

The move comes as pressure grows within the EU to formally list the IRGC as a terrorist organization, with Italy backing the push. The EU has already sanctioned hundreds of Iranian officials and entities over previous crackdowns and Tehran’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Iran's exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi welcomed Italy’s move to press the European Union to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.

“I welcome the Italian government’s position on proscribing the IRGC and thank Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani for advancing this in Brussels,” Pahlavi wrote on X.

He said it was time to act decisively in support of Iranians opposing the Islamic Republic.