Shirin Ebadi Warns Iran’s Internet Blackout May Be Cover for Mass Killings

A sweeping internet shutdown across Iran has raised global alarm after Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi warned it could be masking a possible massacre. Protests over living costs have now entered their second week, while communications with the outside world remain choked.

The blackout, activists say, is no accident. It is a move with history behind it.

A warning from exile as the screens go dark

Ebadi, speaking from exile, did not mince words. In a statement posted on her Telegram channel late Friday, she said the shutdown was “not a technical failure” but a deliberate tactic, one used before during moments of intense state violence.

She warned that security forces could be preparing to act against protesters while cameras, livestreams, and foreign reporters are effectively blinded.

That fear, she said, is grounded in grim reports.

According to information passed to her by contacts inside Iran, hundreds of people were taken to hospitals in Tehran in a single day, many suffering severe eye injuries believed to be caused by pellet gun fire.

The injuries, she said, were not random. They followed a familiar pattern.

Protests that began with prices and turned political

The unrest began almost two weeks ago, triggered by sharp increases in food and fuel prices. Inflation has been biting for years, but this spike hit a nerve.

Crowds gathered first in provincial cities. Then the protests spread.

Chants shifted quickly. What started as anger over daily survival soon included open calls for an end to the clerical system that has ruled Iran since 1979.

Night after night, videos circulated showing burning vehicles, clashes with security forces, and crowds refusing to disperse.

Then the videos stopped.

Mobile data slowed. Messaging apps failed. International calls dropped. By Thursday, large parts of the country were effectively offline.

Silence settled in, thick and uneasy.

Internet shutdowns as a tool of control

Iran is no stranger to internet blackouts. Authorities have used them repeatedly during waves of unrest, most notably during nationwide protests in 2019.

Back then, rights groups later said hundreds were killed while the country was digitally sealed off.

Ebadi’s warning draws directly from that memory.

Cutting the internet, activists argue, does three things at once. It disrupts coordination among protesters. It blocks evidence from reaching the outside world. And it gives security forces room to act without scrutiny.

An exiled activist, speaking separately, said she had been told that hospitals were overwhelmed with injured demonstrators, many blinded or partially blinded by pellet rounds fired at close range.

Those injuries tell a story even when words cannot.

What is known so far, and what remains blocked

With access restricted, confirmed information is scarce. Iranian state media has acknowledged protests in several cities, including Zanjan, but has framed them as isolated riots.

Independent verification is almost impossible right now.

Still, fragments have emerged.

• International phone calls into Iran are largely blocked

• Internet access is either severely throttled or fully cut in many regions

• Hospitals in major cities are reportedly treating large numbers of eye injuries

Each point on its own might sound manageable. Together, they paint a troubling picture.

A familiar pattern of force and denial

Human rights groups have long accused Iranian security forces of aiming pellet guns at protesters’ faces to cause lasting damage without immediate fatalities.

Doctors Without Borders and other medical observers have documented similar injury patterns in past crackdowns.

Ebadi referenced those precedents directly. She said the current reports echo what was seen during earlier protest waves, when the full scale of violence only emerged months later.

By then, evidence had been scrubbed. Witnesses had been silenced.

Families, she said, were left with questions and graves.

Her message was blunt: the world should not wait this time.

International reaction and muted pressure

So far, official reactions from foreign governments have been cautious.

Several European officials have expressed “concern” about the internet shutdown and called for restraint. The United Nations has urged Iran to restore access and respect the right to peaceful assembly.

But activists say concern is not enough.

Without real-time images, global attention drifts fast. Other crises compete for headlines. And authoritarian systems know how to wait things out.

Iranian officials, for their part, insist that order must be maintained and blame “foreign-backed agitators” for the unrest.

That line has been used before. It still works at home, at least with some audiences.

Why the blackout itself is the story

In many ways, the shutdown matters as much as the protests.

Connectivity has become the nervous system of modern dissent. Cut it, and movements lose memory as well as momentum. Names vanish. Faces blur. Numbers turn fuzzy.

Ebadi’s fear is that this fog is intentional.

Below is a snapshot of how Iran’s communication restrictions compare during major protest periods:

The pattern, critics argue, is hard to ignore.

Lives caught between fear and silence

Inside Iran, families are waiting. Parents cannot reach children. Friends cannot confirm who is safe.

Hospitals, activists say, have warned staff not to speak. Patients are moved quietly. Records are thin.

And outside the country, exiles refresh dead screens, hoping for any sign.

Ebadi’s message carried urgency, but also exhaustion. She has seen this movie before, she said, and it never ends well when the lights go out.

For now, Iran remains largely offline. What happens in the dark may take weeks or months to surface.