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VOA – A major internet outage in Iran aimed at suppressing anti-government protests has extended into a sixth day, with access levels rising slightly as authorities said they reconnected several regions to the web. In a series of Thursday tweets, London-based internet monitoring group NetBlocks said Iran\u2019s almost-total internet shutdown began to ease after 113 hours, with the national connectivity rate rising from 5% to 10%, and later to 15% by early Friday local time. Connectivity had plummeted to about 5% late Saturday and mostly remained at that level until Thursday afternoon. Iranian state news agencies reported that authorities were gradually restoring internet access in several regions, including the southern province of Hormozgan, which is home to the major port of Bandar Abbas. Speaking to reporters in Tehran, Abolhassan Firouzabadi, secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme Cyberspace Council, said the state body would make a decision later Thursday about whether to end the internet shutdown, which has further damaged an economy already weakened by U.S. sanctions. He expressed hope the outage would end \u201cwithin the next two days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shutdown imposed<\/strong><\/p>\n Iranian authorities imposed the shutdown to stop oppositi<\/p>\n on activists from communicating and posting online images of nationwide protests that erupted last Friday in response to the government\u2019s abrupt 50% increase in the subsidized price of gasoline.<\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that Iran has become \u201cso unstable\u201d that its government shut down internet access to try to stop people from talking about \u201ctremendous violence\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want ZERO transparency, thinking the world will not find out the death and tragedy that the Iranian Regime is causing!\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n Secretary of State Mike Pompeo followed by tweeting an appeal, in Farsi and English, for Iranians to send images and information about the government\u2019s violent crackdown on the protests to the Trump administration. He said Iranians could do so via the @RFJ_Farsi_Bot Telegram channel.<\/p>\n They want ZERO transparency, thinking the world will not find out the death and tragedy that the Iranian Regime is causing!\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n Secretary of State Mike Pompeo followed by tweeting an appeal, in Farsi and English, for Iranians to send images and information about the government\u2019s violent crackdown on the protests to the Trump administration. He said Iranians could do so via the @RFJ_Farsi_Bot Telegram channel.The protests had spread to more than 50 urban centers in Iran by Saturday, according to images received from Iran and verified by VOA Persian.<\/p>\n Many Iranians see the gas price increase as putting a further burden on their wallets at a time of worsening economic conditions. Iran\u2019s currency has slumped versus the dollar, while inflation and unemployment have soared in the past year, as the U.S. has tightened economic sanctions aimed at pressuring Tehran to stop perceived malign behaviors. Government corruption and mismanagement also have contributed to the malaise.<\/p>\n