(JNS) After nearly three weeks of near-total digital isolation, the first detailed evidence of Iran’s January 2026 crackdown is beginning to emerge, offering what human-rights groups describe as a chilling picture of state-led mass violence.
The Islamic Republic imposed what observers have called a “digital iron curtain” in early January, cutting off global internet access and disabling large portions of the country’s domestic intranet. While connectivity is now being cautiously restored to select business sectors and government-approved users, brief windows of access have allowed thousands of files—videos, photographs, medical records and testimonies—to reach observers outside Iran.
According to analysts and human-rights monitors, the material documents a coordinated, military-style suppression of protests on Jan. 8–9 that included the use of heavy weaponry in civilian areas, sniper fire, mass detentions, enforced disappearances and widespread efforts to conceal the scale of casualties.
Premeditated blackout
Independent monitoring organizations say the nationwide communications shutdown was not a reactive measure but a preplanned operation designed to shield the crackdown from scrutiny.
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