Names against silence: Teachers document student deaths in January crackdown

The report released on Monday, titled “Tightening the Net: China’s Infrastructure of Oppression in Iran,” traces cooperation dating back to at least 2010 and says Chinese firms supplied or supported equipment and know-how used for internet filtering, deep packet inspection, centralized traffic management, and mass surveillance.

It named companies including ZTE, Huawei, Tiandy, and Hikvision, and describes how Iran built out a tightly controlled “National Information Network” designed to function as a domestic intranet while progressively limiting access to the open, global internet.

“In its pursuit of total control over the digital space, Iran borrows directly from the Chinese digital authoritarian playbook,” Michael Caster, head of ARTICLE 19’s China program, said in the report.

The organization said Tehran’s embrace of Beijing’s “cyber sovereignty” concept – the idea that governments should have near-total authority over online information flows within their borders – has helped normalize censorship and surveillance in international forums.

“Emulating China’s infrastructure of oppression helps Iran entrench power, sidestepping accountability and exercising full control over the information environment. That way, dissent is not just silenced, it is prevented from ever surfacing,” said Mo Hoseini, the head of the group’s Resilience department said.

ARTICLE 19 said the technology and institutional alignment have become more visible during major crackdowns, including the recent wave of protests that began late December.

The group said authorities responded with widespread violence and arrests, and then escalated to nationwide network interference on January 8, 2026, followed by broad disruption of internet, phone, and mobile networks by January 11, cutting off communications as security forces moved to suppress dissent.

The report said the latest blackout showed a level of centralized control that reached beyond social media and messaging, affecting essential services including banking, healthcare, and emergency response.

It added that Iran has repeatedly used shutdowns during earlier periods of unrest, including during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests and demonstrations in 2019-2020, but argued the 2026 disruption was broader and more aggressively enforced than previous episodes.

ARTICLE 19 said Iran also intensified efforts to restrict satellite connectivity. It said Starlink traffic was heavily disrupted during the crackdown and that the sophistication of the disruption suggested military-grade capabilities.

The report said authorities also seized satellite equipment door-to-door and imposed harsh penalties under a 2025 law criminalizing the possession of satellite internet terminals.

While the group said China’s direct role in the specific Starlink disruption was not confirmed, it argued that Chinese assistance has been central to the foundations of Iran’s internet control architecture, and that Beijing continues to provide a template for the state’s approach to “digital authoritarianism.”

The report describes Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace – established in 2012 and chaired by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – as structurally similar to China’s Cyberspace Administration of China, with both bodies overseeing centralized filtering, restrictions on foreign platforms, and the expansion of state-approved domestic alternatives.

It said Iran’s National Information Network increasingly mirrors features associated with China’s “Great Firewall,” including embedded surveillance and mechanisms to compel service providers to share data or throttle traffic.

The organization said the spread of surveillance and censorship tools risks entrenching repression inside Iran while eroding broader norms of internet freedom.

It also called for stronger export controls and sanctions enforcement targeting suppliers of surveillance and filtering technologies, greater corporate transparency, and increased support for secure circumvention tools and resilient connectivity options for Iranians during shutdowns.

The detentions, which have targeted senior members of the Reform Front of Iran and figures associated with President Masoud Pezeshkian, come as the Islamic Republic remains shaken by the deadliest crackdown in its history.

The protests, which gained momentum after a call by exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, were crushed by the Islamic Republic’s live fire, leading to the massacre of at least 36,500 people.

The arrests also come at a time when Tehran’s theocracy is deeply uncertain about the trajectory of diplomacy with Washington.

Officials have framed the arrests as a response to “coordination with enemy propaganda” and efforts to undermine national cohesion—language that signals heightened sensitivity to any challenge to the state’s narrative at a time of external pressure.

With talks with the United States back on track, Iran’s leadership appears intent on closing ranks at home, moving to eliminate deviations from the official line, particularly among figures who until recently were tolerated as part of a tightly managed political spectrum.

Public statements by judicial and security bodies have offered little ambiguity. Those detained have been accused of promoting “surrenderism” toward the United States and acting in the interests of Israel.

The hardline daily Kayhan, whose editor is appointed by the supreme leader, described those arrested as extremists who had aligned themselves with “overthrowists,” effectively placing even moderate critics beyond the pale.

The detainees

Those detained include senior figures from the Reform Front and its largest constituent party, the Union of Islamic Iran People Party. Among them are Azar Mansouri, head of the Reform Front; Javad Emam, its spokesman; former diplomat Mohsen Aminzadeh; and the veteran politician Ebrahim , the leader of radical students who stormed the US embassy in 1980.

One case appears to reflect a clearer red line.

An audio recording that circulated online captured remarks by Ali Shakouri-Rad, a senior party figure, who rejected the official account of the recent protests and accused security forces of manufacturing violence.

“Security institutions in Iran, in every protest, have injected violence to use it as a pretext for repression,” he said. “It has been like this from the beginning, and it has gotten worse day by day.”

Yet for much of Iranian society—still grieving the mass killing of protesters in January—this confrontation within the political elite has the feel of an argument unfolding in a parallel universe.

The protests, which began over economic hardship and rapidly escalated into nationwide calls for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, were met with overwhelming force. Tens of thousands were killed in a matter of days, according to internal assessments reviewed by Iran International.

In the aftermath, Pezeshkian and the moderate camp from which he emerged broadly aligned themselves with the state’s narrative, avoiding public confrontation with the security establishment.

That alignment proved decisive. For many Iranians, Pezeshkian’s election in 2024 represented a final, tentative wager on incremental change from within the system. His conduct during and after the crackdown extinguished that hope.

Against that backdrop, the latest arrests appear less a dramatic rupture than a belated narrowing of a political space that had already collapsed in the public mind.

The exception lies with a small group of activists who crossed a line the system still treats as inviolable. Several of those detained were linked to a January 2 statement signed by 17 political and civil figures declaring the Islamic Republic illegitimate and calling for a peaceful transition of power.

Unlike most reformist figures, the signatories explicitly rejected the framework of the existing order, underscoring where the authorities continue to draw their true red lines.

Figures associated with the 2009 Green Movement have also been swept up, including advisers and relatives of its leaders, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. Mousavi, under house arrest for more than a decade, recently described the killing of protesters as a “black page in Iran’s history” and called on leaders to step aside.

As negotiations with the United States resume amid warnings of war, the leadership is signaling that internal discipline will take precedence over political pluralism — even of the carefully managed kind once associated with reformism.

For most Iranians outside the corridors of power, however, the arrests change little. Few still see themselves reflected in the state’s internal disputes.

The bill, dubbed C-12, introduces strict asylum filing deadlines, shifts many decisions to paper-based reviews, expands border officers’ powers to search digital devices without judicial oversight, and allows the government to suspend visas and permits for public interest reasons.

Among those who testified were Ardeshir Zarezadeh, a lawyer and president of the International Centre for Human Rights, Timothy McSorley, National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group; as well as representatives from Amnesty International and the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR.

“Thousands of Iranians have been killed in the streets simply for protesting, while at the same time individuals affiliated with the Iranian regime are able to live comfortably in Canada and benefit from Canadian values,” Zarezadeh said.

He called the bill’s emphasis on asylum deadlines a “misdirection” and said Canada already has tools to identify and deport Islamic Republicagents — the failure is in “weak visa screening systems prior to entry.”

Other witnesses argued that rigid one-year claim deadlines disproportionately harm genuine refugees, especially those traumatized or suddenly displaced, while security threats often enter with fraudulent documents and evade such barriers.

While the government emphasizes the need for swift passage of the bill to address US border security concerns, the Senate committee is currently synthesizing these expert testimonies to prepare its final report.

Canada last week condemned the killing of protesters and use of violence by Iranian authorities after a video shared by Iran International showed an armored vehicle operated by Iranian security force running over demonstrators in Ardabil, northwest of Iran.

Human rights advocates in Canada are urging the country’s national police to gather evidence on Canadians linked to Iran’s repression apparatus after thousands of protesters were killed in January.

The push comes amid mounting demands for accountability after Iran International’s Editorial Board confirmed that more than 36,500 Iranians were killed by security forces during the January 8–9 crackdown, the deadliest two-day protest massacre in history.

Advocates say Canada must ensure perpetrators cannot find refuge abroad — and that Iranian Canadians have a direct avenue to report evidence.

In an op-ed published this week in one of Iran’s leading economic newspapers, Donya-ye Eghtesad, the economist Massoud Nili described the country’s current predicament as a failure of governance that left mounting problems and public grievances unaddressed.

“The current situation marks one of the saddest and most critical junctures in Iran’s history,” Nili wrote, “a moment in which thousands of Iranians — mainly young people — lost their lives in less than 48 hours.”

He argued that “a combination of poverty, unemployment, inequality, inflation, psychological insecurity under the looming shadow of war, and cultural conflict placed young Iranians at the center of the crisis.”

The unrest began in Tehran’s historic Grand Bazaar in late 2025, initially driven by slogans reflecting economic hardship. Over the following week, they broadened into nationwide demonstrations calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.

Protests peaked on January 8 and 9, following a call for coordinated actions by exiled prince Reza Pahlavi.

As many as 36,500 people were killed during the crackdown on those two days, according to an internal assessment leaked to and reviewed by Iran International.

Among the clearest warning signs, Nili noted, was the existence of nearly 12 million young Iranians who are neither employed nor enrolled in education.

Iran’s labor market, he wrote, has been effectively stagnant since 2009. While the working-age population increased by 4.4 million, the economy created only about 200,000 jobs, even as roughly 700,000 people lost employment.

Official figures suggest that net job creation has approached zero in recent years.

Other economists have echoed Nili’s assessment in the weeks since the protests and their violent suppression.

Speaking at Tejarat Farda’s economic forum in late January, Mohammad Mehdi Behkish described the protests as the product of “forty years of flawed governance and policymaking,” arguing that rigid political and economic structures had pushed society toward a breaking point.

Another prominent economist, Mousa Ghaninejad, pointed to the scale of the deterioration. In 2011, he said, fewer than 20 percent of Iranians lived below the poverty line. Today, that figure has risen to roughly 40 percent.

Declining oil revenues have further constrained the state’s ability to provide social support, while access to adequate nutrition and medical care has sharply declined.

Official data show inflation has exceeded 40 percent for at least two years, eroding purchasing power even among government employees and military personnel.

High inflation has enriched groups with preferential access to state-linked resources, widening inequality and deepening social resentment.

Nili concluded that a convergence of poverty, unemployment, inequality, psychological insecurity under the shadow of war, and cultural conflict had placed young Iranians at the center of the crisis.

Writing from inside Iran, Nili confined his analysis to economic and social indicators and avoided the political roots of the crisis—the deepening rupture between the state and a society that has come to resent the worldview and governing vision of its rulers.

He did mention “realities”, however, that if ignored, would steer the country toward “an extremely dangerous future.”

Security officials informed the families their presence at the February 11 pro-state march must be “verifiable,” including by taking photos and videos of themselves at the rally and sending the material to security bodies, informed sources said.

The officials, according to the sources, coupled the demand with threats and sustained psychological pressure, telling families that only if they comply might their detained relatives be released, spared execution, or see their sentences reduced.

The pressure coincided with a message delivered on Monday by Ali Khamenei, who in a short recorded video urged Iranians to demonstrate loyalty to the Islamic Republic and emphasized the need to stand firm against opponents of the system.

Pressure amid widening crackdown

The reported coercion comes as Iran International has previously documented an intensifying crackdown following nationwide protests, including mass arrests and a rise in reported deaths in custody. Observers have warned the pattern may point to a broader phase aimed at consolidating control and removing evidence linked to the violent suppression of dissent.

• 

  Over 36,500 killed in Iran's deadliest massacre, documents reveal

According to a statement by Iran International’s editorial board, at least 36,500 protesters have been killed during the unrest. Many viewers of the outlet have also reported widespread arrests, critical conditions for detainees, and, in numerous cases, families being left without information about the whereabouts or treatment of their relatives.

Statements attributed to detainees’ families

Separately, websites affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps published a text on Monday attributed to Mohammad Ali Saeedi-Nia, an entrepreneur and founder of the Saeedi-Nia Real Estate and Industries Group, alleging that he would take part in the February 11 pro-state rally.

Sources told Iran International that the publication was part of the same pressure campaign and aimed at extracting forced declarations of loyalty from families of detainees, using pro-government media to signal compliance.

Sadegh Saeedi-Nia, the son of Mohammad Ali Saeedi-Nia and chief executive of the family business, was arrested following the protests and subsequent killings and remains in prison.

Meanwhile, reports indicate a new wave of government-ordered closures of cafés and restaurants in Tehran, accompanied by the suspension of their social media accounts. Officials have not announced the reasons for the closures, which follow similar actions in recent months and appear to have intensified after the mass killings of protesters in January.