Iranians respond to exiled prince's call to protest as internet is cut

People in Tehran and other cities rallied after exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi called for mass demonstrations; internet and telephone service were reported cut shortly after the protests began.

People in Tehran and other cities rallied and chanted after exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi called for mass demonstrations. Witnesses reported neighbourhoods erupting in chants and gatherings at the 8 p.m. local start time. Shortly after the protests began, internet access and telephone lines were reported cut. CloudFlare and the advocacy group NetBlocks attributed the outage to government interference. Key details: - Reza Pahlavi, an exiled crown prince, called for mass demonstrations at 8 p.m. local time on Thursday and again on Friday. - Witnesses said residents in Tehran chanted from their homes and that crowds gathered in the streets after the call. - Internet and telephone service were reported cut soon after the protests began; CloudFlare and NetBlocks reported the outage and attributed it to government interference. - The protests were described as broadly leaderless, and Pahlavi said he would offer further plans depending on the response. Summary: The demonstrations followed an appeal by Reza Pahlavi and were met with reported communications outages attributed to government interference. Pahlavi said he would announce further plans based on the response, and demonstrations were also planned for Friday at 8 p.m. local time. The longer-term impact remains undetermined at this time.