Lifting of internet restrictions reveals Iranians’ anger over food inflation

As government begins restoring connection, population voices dismay over food price increases and shortages

The partial lifting of internet restrictions in Iran has revealed a rising tide of anger about food price inflation as ordinary Iranians decry annual price increases of 308% for vegetable oil, 190% for chicken, and 170% for rice.

Iranian authorities on Tuesday began restoring the connection to the global internet that was severed on the first day of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic on 28 February, as it had been during mass protests in January.

Connectivity remained patchy on Wednesday, with mobile internet still largely disconnected and many sites remaining restricted. But even the partial restoration was enough to reveal an outpouring of anger over price inflation and food shortages.

“Everything is so expensive. It has become a disaster,” wrote one user on social media. “You leave the market with a broken heart after spending all your savings. It is unbearable. We have no patience left to lead a normal life.”

President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has been given some credit for lifting the internet restrictions, blamed the US for Iran’s economic woes, saying Washington “had moved to economic warfare after failing to bring the government down”.

In a lengthy statement, the ministry of intelligence revealed its concerns that internet freedom could be used for “cognitive warfare”, warning that Iran’s adversaries aimed to “incite protesters and drag them on to the streets”.

It said: “The enemy, defeated on the military front, now focuses its efforts on soft warfare, cognitive warfare, and social provocations.”

The government announced the launch of a “resistance economy committee”to crack down on price gouging and address surging shortages, but hyperinflation is now endemic in Iran, due to trade sanctions, exchange rate pressure, and moves taken to reduce subsidies given to traders in January.

Data from the International Monetary Fund showed that food inflation has now risen to between 140% and 200%, pushing overall inflation to 70%.

Support for continuing internet restrictions was put at just 9% in a survey published on Wednesday.

Government supporters in a bid to forestall support for the son of the Shah Reza Pahlavi tried to flood the internet with claims directed at “youngsters returning to the internet” that Pahlavi had openly applauded the attacks on Iran mounted by Israel and the US.

Others expressed simple relief that they could now talk to the wider world.

Human rights activist Emadeddin Baghi wrote: “Three bloody months have passed, but not for those who lost a loved one or had their home destroyed. In this period our voices found no echo except on some internal platforms and to the best of our ability we spoke and wrote in defence of the rights of the voiceless”.

Prominent rapper Toomaj Salehi, who in 2024 was sentenced to death after supporting 2022 protests before being released, said being connected to the internet is “not a favour to us – it is our right. And without filters as well”.

“Like free elections, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of parties, and many other freedoms, these are our rights and not favours,” he wrote on X.