Iran to end internet blackout within next days: Security official

A senior Iranian security official says an internet blackout that began in the country following riots that erupted over fuel price hikes will end within the next few days.

Abolfazl Hosseinbeigi told the ISNA agency on Wednesday that the main reason for cutting internet access across Iran last weekend was that a group of “saboteurs” were using online services like navigation and maps to coordinate their activities in large cities.

“Given that the main elements of the mutinies have been arrested, God willing, the internet will be restored in the next days,” said Hosseinbeigi, who sits on the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament.

A member of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the body that ordered the internet blackout on Saturday, said that restoration of services would need a “collective decision” at the highest levels of the Iranian government.

Mohammad Javad Kolivand said maintaining security of the country was the top priority and a prerequisite for restoration of internet.

“Definitely, we would soon make a decision on the issue in the SNSC given the (positive) reports received from various parts (of the country),” said Kolivand.

Access to most of the internet services in Iran was suspended after several people were killed in riots that erupted following an abrupt government decision to increase the price of gasoline.

Authorities said a triple hike in the price of the non-subsidized gasoline, announced in the early hours of Friday, was needed to contain rampant smuggling across the borders and control a surging domestic demand.

For a first time in years, the blackout enabled many Iranian providers of internet services to extensively use the country’s National Information Network (NIN), a platform once touted as the national internet.  

Authorities believe the NIN could be of more use in future if the content provided on the platform could match its massive technical potentials.