After a brutal Internet shutdown, Iranians wake up stunned

"I tweet for the first time with my mobile phone after eleven days of Internet shutdown," tweets in a tweet the Iranian journalist Abas Aslani, editor-in-chief of Iran Front Page news site. Like him, the 80 million Internet users in Iran have found access to the global network only from Wednesday, November 27 from their phone. Only the wi-fi had been restored on November 23 by the Iranian authorities according NetBlocks website, which monitors freedom of Internet access in the world.

However, access to 4G on the phone is still partial, says Abas Aslani on Twitter: "Mobile Internet has been restored in the province of Tehran, excluding some cities in western Tehran where demonstrations have become more violent ".

Mobile internet in Tehran province, excluding some towns in western Tehran, where protests went more violent, have been restored. This is my 1st post using my mobile internet after 11 days of shutdown. Mobile internet has been reportedly restored in some other provinces of #Iran

4G returns to Tehran slowly but not in all quarters https://t.co/qlj0LpIWNx

Images of Iranian dead circulate on the Internet

Iran has been cut off from the world in the aftermath of the bloody crackdown on the 15 November protests, which Amnesty International has reported killed at least 140 people and 7,000 arrests. More than ten days after the events, the Iranians discover the extent of the repression through the videos of the violence, the photos of the victims and the testimonies of the families of deceased who are exchanged on the social networks.

"I am somebody's his and I'm putting my life at risk by coming out to protest"

27-year-old #PouyaBakhtiari was peacefully protesting with his mother and sister before Iran's security forces brutally shot him in the head and killed him # IranProtests https://t.co/eEjCthSjM6

The Iranian authorities, for their part, confirmed that the deaths of five people, four members of the police killed by "rioters", and a civilian. Tehran also announced the arrest of about 500 people, including 180 "leaders".

Three billion dollars loss for the Iranian economy

The cut on 16 November was unprecedented, says Ershad Alijani, an Iranian journalist with the editors of the Observateurs de France 24. "The Internet has already been slowed down or partially cut off during protests in Iran. , especially in 2009, but never with such magnitude and on such a large geographical scale. "

With the restoration of access to the global network, voices have been raised in the Iranian economic sphere to denounce the ten days of freezing trade in sectors already marked by the economic crisis following the reinstatement of US sanctions against Iran .

Thursday, the reformist daily Etemad and headlined on the "cost of the Internet outage", which the note is "3 billion dollars" for "young companies in Iran", according to official figures. Import-export companies, e-commerce, travel agencies and start-ups are among the most affected sectors.

"Internet, like water, like air, should not be disconnected"

Discontent is also being felt within the Iranian government to imagine a more concerted and less brutal cut. "Internet, like water, like air, should not be disconnected," tweeted Wednesday Amir Nazemy the Iranian Deputy Minister of Communication. "To prevent the normalization of Internet failures, we are working on a bill that would require the approval of Parliament to close the Internet or any application with more than one million users in Iran," he said. pursued.

The more conservative currents call on them, to improve the effectiveness of the national information network. This local service, which has increased traffic during the Internet blockade, only allows government services, local news sites and government-approved applications, such as Iranian courier services, to be accessible in Iran. .

If Iran, like China, manages to develop a successful national network, it would serve the Iranian authorities to continue trade during times of demonstrations, while stifling the communications of the protest movements.