During the November 2019 Iranian protests over gas price hikes, and during the December funerals of the protest victims, Iranians experienced a 10-day government-backed internet shutdown. During that “interruption,” about 1,500 people, including 443 women and 17 children, were killed by the regime, Reuters reported.

Though what happened to the Iranian internet is known as “intentional internet disruption” or “internet shutdown,” it technically was heavy filtering. When the internet is disrupted or shut down, users are completely disconnected from the global network. In heavy filtering situations, users are connected to the network but are not able to send or receive data.