The Internet is down in Iran amid protests over the economic crisis

Internet connectivity fell across Iran on Thursday amid international protests, according to internet monitoring companies.

“I think we’re almost out of the world now,” Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity researcher who works at the nonprofit Miaan Group, told TechCrunch.

Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik, a company that monitors global internet traffic, agreed, telling TechCrunch that Iran’s internet has been “shut down” since 11:30 a.m. on the east coast of the US on Thursday, or 8 p.m. Tehran time.

NetBlocks, an online networking company Cloudflareis an internet connection tracking site IODall the registered ones suddenly drop when you connect to Iran at the same time.

“We’re continuing to see a lot of traffic, but the world isn’t completely offline,” David Belson, head of analytics at Cloudflare, told TechCrunch.

At the end of December, protests broke out in several cities in Iran, following a significant devaluation of the country’s currency, to encourage lack of goods and high inflation. Some shops in Tehran’s traditional bazaar have been closed for 11 days, according to The New York Times.

The Iranian government has taken action by brutally torturing the protesters.

The Iranian government, which largely controls the country’s internet, is behind the blackout, according to Rashidi.

Iranian government officials in the United States did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. The website of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was down at the time of publication.