Yousef Pezeshkian says nothing will be solved by trying to postpone moment footage of violent crackdown circulate
The son of Iran’s president has called for the internet restrictions in the country to be lifted, saying nothing will be solved by trying to postpone the moment when pictures and video of the protests circulate, which were violently crushed by the regime.
With a battle under way at the top of the regime about the political risks of continuing to block Iran from the internet, Yousef Pezeshkian, whose father, Masoud, was elected in the summer of 2024, said keeping the digital shutdown would create dissatisfaction and widen the gap between the people and the government.
“This means those who were not and are not dissatisfied will be added to the list of the dissatisfied,” he wrote in a Telegram post. The release of videos showing the violence of the protests was “something we will have to face sooner or later”, Yousef Pezeshkian added. “Shutting down the internet will not solve anything, we will just postpone the issue.”
The sporadic lifting of restrictions is leading to a slow and painful inquest into how many protesters, including children, have died. Authorities launched a violent crackdown under cover of the internet blackout, with rights groups documenting several thousand dead. The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights says the final figure could be as high as 25,000. Thousands more people are still being detained.
