With secret satellites, pricey messages abroad and clandestine file transfers, young Iraqis are circumventing an internet blackout aimed at stifling several days of bloody protests in the capital and beyond.
Authorities restricted access to Facebook and Whatsapp after anti-government demonstrations began on Tuesday, before ordering a total network shutdown on Wednesday.
The termination of Wifi, 3G and 4G access left protestors with just regular phone calls and mobile messages — a few notable exceptions aside.
Ahmad, 29, works at an internet service provider that helped implement the government's shutdown, but still has internet access at its headquarters.
"I go to the protests in the morning and shoot video on my phone, then use the internet at work to upload them to Facebook or send them to media outside Iraq," he said, using a fake name for fear of retribution or legal action by the government.
Protesters say the internet outage is an attempt to suppress reports of security forces using indiscriminate force including tear gas, live rounds and water cannons.
Ahmad showed AFP footage he planned to send to international media later that evening — shots could be heard fired across a mostly-empty street in Baghdad as he and fellow protesters took cover behind a concrete barrier.
"Friends are even giving me the footage they shoot on flash drives so everyone outside Iraq can see what's happening here," he said.
Before Tuesday, many Iraqis had taken to Facebook and Instagram to call for initial protests against a range of grievances: unemployment, mass government corruption, nepotism, poor public services, and more.
Images of young men and women marching towards the emblematic Tahrir Square flooded social media the first day, using the hashtag #save_Iraqi_people.
When restrictions on Facebook began, Iraqis acted quickly; many downloaded virtual private network (VPN) applications.
Others even began surreptitiously posting the details of the next protests in the comments section of Cinemana, a popular streaming service in Iraq.
But those avenues were shut off by the systemic shutdown.
Those that could afford to therefore erected costly satellites on their rooftops to get a window into the outside world.
– 'Follow the gunfire' –
Nearly 100 people have died in the demonstrations since Tuesday, most of them protesters but also personnel from the security forces, according to authorities.
"They're trying to fight us not just with arms, but with this blackout," said 31-year-old protester Osama Mohammad.
"We used to check the different neighbourhoods' Facebook pages to know where to go for protests. Now we just follow the sound of gunfire," Mohammad told AFP.
"If they cut off regular phone lines, we'll be completely blind," he noted.
For 25-year-old women's rights activist Rasha, taking to the streets carries too much risk, but she says she has found a different way to get involved.
Every day, her male friends text her dozens of updates from protest squares across the country, which she then texts and phones through to friends in the United Arab Emirates and Europe.
"I'm an intermediary. I can't protest myself so this is the least I can do," she said, telling AFP the phone credit she buys has cost her around $100 (90 euros) per day for the last three days.
Rasha, who comes from Baghdad, is also saving videos and other unpublished material from one of the first protests that turned violent. She attended that initial demonstration.
"They think we'll forget they fired at us, they think people won't know. But I've got the videos and I'll publish everything I saw that day the minute the internet comes back," she said.
Jaafar Raad, an unemployed 29-year-old Iraqi who has frequently protested, is also storing dozens of images and videos to release once the blackout is lifted.
He even records voice notes from the protests themselves in applications like Whatsapp and Facebook, so that the audio messages will automatically send to friends abroad and international media outlets as soon as the internet returns.
"People must know what happened to us. This is so we can hold those behind the violence accountable," he told AFP.
Iraq: days of escalating protests, bloody clashes
Baghdad (AFP) Oct 4, 2019 –
Anti-government protests in Iraq quickly escalated into deadly clashes, in the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi since he came to power in 2018.
Here is a recap of four days of unrest, in which dozens of people have been killed and hundreds wounded.
– Spontaneous gatherings –
On October 1, more than 1,000 people take to the streets in Baghdad and several cities in southern Iraq to protest corruption, unemployment and poor public services.
It is the first large protest faced by Abdel Mahdi's fragile government nearly a year into its term.
Demonstrators gather in the capital's iconic Tahrir (Liberation) Square, in what seems to be a spontaneous movement, with no political or religious faction explicitly calling for protests.
Riot police disperse crowds with water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets.
They also fire live ammunition when protesters regroup and appear intent on marching to the Green Zone housing government offices and foreign embassies.
Several people are killed.
Abdel Mahdi pays tribute to security forces, blaming the violence on "aggressors who… deliberately created casualties".
– Unrest spreads –
On October 2, protests multiply across southern Iraq, with thousands participating. In Baghdad, riot police attempt to disperse crowds in a half-dozen neighbourhoods by firing tear gas and live rounds.
Protesters try to reach Tahrir Square, but it is sealed off. They set fire to tyres and block main roads, while security forces seal off the Green Zone.
Riot police fire live rounds during demonstrations in the southern cities of Najaf and Nasiriyah.
More deaths and injuries are reported.
Liberal newspaper Al-Bayina Al-Jadida says the protests are "without flag, without poster or party slogan".
Firebrand Shiite cleric and influential politician Moqtada Sadr later calls for "peaceful protests and a general strike".
Authorities impose a curfew in Baghdad and several other cities.
– Battles in Baghdad –
On October 3, major clashes occur as thousands of protesters defy the curfew to march in Baghdad and across the south.
In the capital, riot police and soldiers fire live rounds into the air and at the ground from automatic weapons mounted on military vehicles.
Crowds block streets and burn tyres in front of government offices in multiple cities, including Missan, Najaf, Basra, Wasit and Babylon.
Internet is cut to about 75 percent of the country, in what monitors say is a deliberate measure to prevent coverage of the unrest.
Amnesty International condemns as "outrageous" security force "brutality using lethal and unnecessary force".
In his first public address since protests began, Abdel Mahdi defends his government's achievements on television and asks for time to implement a reform agenda.
He describes the unrest as "the destruction of the state".
– Sadr calls on government to step down –
On October 4, protesters again gather in Baghdad and large numbers of security forces are deployed to enforce the curfew, again blocking access to Tahrir Square. Clashes intensify.
In the evening, clashes continue in Baghdad, where a barrage of gunfire is heard, according to AFP reporters. Several people are hit by bullets, some in the head and the stomach.
Iraqi security forces say "unidentified snipers" fired on members of the security forces and protesters.
In a much-anticipated midday sermon, Iraq's revered Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani endorses the protests and calls on the government to heed them "before it's too late".
But in the evening the populist Sadr, whose bloc emerged as the biggest in parliament after May 2018 elections, called on the government to resign and for early elections to be held under UN supervision.
Before him parliament speaker Mohammad Halboussi told protesters "your voice is being heard".
The UN calls on Iraq to rapidly and transparently investigate force used by riot police.
Medical and security sources say the death toll since Tuesday has risen to 44, including six police.
