Iran has cut access to social media sites being used to organize protests which have gripped the country for four days.
Instagram and anonymous messaging app Telegram were temporarily blocked ‘to maintain tranquility and security of society’, the Iranian state news agency reported.
The move came as President Hassan Rouhani, who has been the focus of anti-regime chants and has not spoken since protests broke out, prepared to make a televised address to the nation.
The Iranian regime has cut access to anonymous messaging app Telegram and Instagram ‘to maintain security’ amid protests gripping the country (file image)
The regime has also promised activists will ‘pay the price’ of dissent and vowed to crush their movement with an ‘iron fist’
Telegram, used by around half of Iran’s population, was being used to spread videos of protests along with times and locations of upcoming marches
Despite the online crackdown more footage emerged on Sunday showing demonstrations spreading to the cities of Sanandaj and Urmye in Kurdistan Province.
Police reportedly used water cannon against demonstrators who had gathered in Ferdowsi Square in Tehran.
Video posted online also showed a clash between protesters and police in the city of Khoramdareh in Zanjan province in the country’s northwest and Kermanshah in western Iran.
The protests began in the north-east on Thursday over the country’s flagging economy, but have since spread to encompass fury at the regime.
Iran has accused ‘foreign agents’ of fanning the flames of dissent.
Among those accused is Roohallah Zam, who runs a Telegram channel spreading news of protests as well as times and locations of upcoming marches.
Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian President, is due to speak on national television to issue his first statement since the crisis began
Marchers also gathered outside the Iranian embassy in west London on Sunday to call for an end to the regime
The demonstrations started on Thursday over the country’s flagging economy, but have since spread (pictured, marchers in west London)
Opponents of President Hassan Rouhani gathered in London to make their voices heard
The Iranian government accuses Zam of inciting violence, though he denies this.
Also weighing in on the unfolding crisis was Nikki Haley, America’s representative at the UN, who said the country is ‘being tested by its own citizens’.
‘We pray that freedom and human rights will carry the day,’ she said in a statement.
Haley’s comments echoed those of US President Donald Trump, who earlier Sunday said the United States was watching closely for human rights violations.
‘Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer,’ Trump tweeted.
Iran has promised to use an ‘iron fist’ to crush dissent, raising fears of widespread bloodshed after two activists were shot dead in the city of Dorud overnight.
The government has confirmed the deaths, but said the men were killed by ‘foreign agents’ and not the security forces.
Video posted on social media showed two young men lying on the ground and covered with blood as a voice over said they had been shot dead by police.