After almost nine days of total blockade, Iranian authorities have now reactivated text message services in the country, the state-linked Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.
The information was confirmed by, among others, the Spanish news agency EFE.
However, it is still not possible to send text messages abroad or to access the internet. Filterwatch, an organization that monitors Iran's internet censorship, states in a report that the regime is deliberately moving towards total digital isolation.
“The Islamic Republic has abandoned its traditional model of mass censorship of the internet in favor of a new, much darker strategy: 'Absolute digital isolation,'” the organization writes .
The regime's secret plan means that international internet access will become a "state privilege," according to the report.
“State media and government spokespeople have already signaled that this is a permanent change,” writes Filterwatch, which is part of the human rights group Miaan Group.
The regime in Tehran cut off the internet and telephony on January 8 in an attempt to quell the massive protests that have erupted in the country and prevent contact with the outside world. In the days surrounding January 8, several thousand protesters were killed by regime forces, according to several human rights organizations in exile.
