Iran's Penalties for Backing Protests: Actors, Athletes, and Public Figures Face Trouble

Iran is cracking down on those seen as supporting the recent anti-government protests that started in late December 2025. Besides mass arrests and a broad security response, the government is using courts, confiscations, and control of information to scare people, celebrities, and business owners. Human-rights groups say the reported figures don't fully show what's happening because communication cuts and pressure on families make it very hard to check facts.

According to HRANA, a U.S.-based group that tracks human-rights issues in Iran, the confirmed death count from the protests is 4,519, and over 9,000 more deaths are still being looked into. The same source says at least 5,811 people were badly hurt and 26,314 were arrested. HRANA thinks these numbers are probably low because of internet shutdowns, limits on reporting, and pressure on victims' families.

HRANA reports a constant feeling of tension in many cities. Police, security forces, Basij units, and undercover agents are said to be in public areas and at city entrances, with more roadblocks and patrols, especially at night. In different areas like Qazvin, Fars, and Kerman, they say new arrests are happening, and officials have called some of those arrested protest leaders or accused them of serious crimes. Public statements about arrests seem meant to warn others and create public disapproval.

A key point of this crackdown is the focus on famous people and economic targets. The Tehran Prosecutor’s Office has reportedly started cases against athletes and actors, those who signed a statement related to Iran’s Cinema House, and many businesses. In some cases, property has already been taken away. The message is clear: openly supporting protests can lead to prison and money problems.

International news reports give more details on this pressure. The Financial Times says Iranian officials have started taking assets from business owners and companies accused of backing protests, calling it a way to pay for damages from the unrest. The report also notes actions against cafés and business owners, including the arrest of a well-known person connected to popular coffee shops and stores, along with closures or legal actions against news sources that reported on the unrest.

Control of information has become a strong tool for the government. HRANA says legal cases have started against several news groups, likely to limit protest coverage and control the story. This pressure came after the reformist newspaper Ham-Mihan was suspended, with the editor saying it was because of reporting that officials saw as a breach of medical privacy.” Prosecutors have also mentioned new cases for spreading false information while not naming all the news sources being investigated.

Right now, Iran is going through what some say is its longest internet shutdown ever. It began after officials moved to stop protests by force, around January 8, and it has cut off tens of millions of people from global communication for days. As the blackout continues, it changes daily life: families struggle to talk, journalists and rights groups lose sight of events, and businesses that depend on online sales suffer losses.

Even if the connection comes back, many Iranians worry it will be different. Commentators and digital-rights groups warn that the government might push people to use an internal network—a national intranet—that works separately from the wider internet. NetBlocks, a monitoring group, says Iran seems to be testing selective access through a whitelist system, where most of the global internet is blocked and only approved sites, apps, and services are available. A digital-rights group linked to Miaan Group in the U.S. argues that Iran’s internet policy is moving toward almost total control, with limited, approved access for users.

Confusing official statements have made things more uncertain. One official suggested that access could be normal in a week, while a government spokesperson reportedly told journalists that international internet access might not return until at least March. What seems more likely is that popular apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram might stay blocked. The head of Iran’s Digital Transformation Commission, Ahmad Nirumand, has said there's no reason to restore access to foreign messaging apps right now.

The economic impact is already bad. Iran’s Internet Business Association says the shutdown has caused over 400 trillion rials in damages (around $286–288 million), affecting both small and large companies. These losses add to an already tense economic situation of inflation, unstable currency, and public frustration that helped start the protests.

The protests started in Tehran on December 28, 2025, driven by shop owners and economic problems, but they quickly spread across the country and became broader opposition to the government. After weeks of demonstrations, many protests seem to have been stopped, but the country is still tense, and it's not clear if full internet access will return.

Iran’s leaders have also used stronger language internationally. President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned that any attack on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be seen as a declaration of war against Iran. He blamed the United States for the unrest, saying that sanctions and long-term hostility have made life worse for average Iranians. This followed comments credited to U.S. President Donald Trump calling for an end to Khamenei’s rule. Iranian officials and Khamenei have claimed that foreign-trained people—especially those linked to the U.S. and Israel—are responsible for much of the violence, a claim that Washington denies. The U.S. State Department’s Persian-language messages have called the protests an unavoidable uprising after years of pressure and criticized Iran’s attempts to shift blame.

While these comments shape the diplomatic scene, accounts from inside Iran give a clearer picture of fear and trauma. In Isfahan province, witnesses told Radio Farda that the scenes resembled war zones, with damaged buildings, burned banks, and gunfire aimed at protesters and bystanders. One person said bodies were being removed from behind cars, while another saw corpses stacked in a cemetery as families tried to identify loved ones. These accounts are hard to verify, but they fit with broader reports of extreme violence and many casualties.

People also say that city life has become like martial law. Tehran, once crowded, is said to be empty at night. People report checkpoints, vehicle searches, and security forces asking to see mobile phones for photos or proof of protest activity. Reports from Kurdish areas describe similar heavy security and close tracking of movement. Some accounts say raids have reached into homes, blurring the line between public protest and private life.

For many Iranians, the combination of physical crackdown and digital isolation creates a strong sense of being cut off from the world. Witnesses say people are increasingly afraid to complain about even basic shortages or issues with water and electricity, partly because talking about these issues is dangerous and technically difficult. Confiscations, prosecutions, and targeting of known people increase that fear, showing that supporting protests—through a statement, a post, or a business decision—can have personal, legal, and money-related results.

Iran has a history of limiting communication during times of political pressure. Social-media controls increased after the disputed 2009 presidential election and the protests that followed. A national internet shutdown was used in November 2019 during demonstrations over sudden fuel price increases, and disruptions returned during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022. Hardline supporters say that digital limits are needed for national security, while many Iranians still use VPNs to reach blocked services—at least when the system is working.

What’s happening now seems like a sharper, more controlled version of that pattern: a crackdown that affects jobs, celebrity status, journalism, and the basic ability to communicate. Whether Iran fully restores global connectivity or replaces it with a controlled, “whitelisted” internet will shape the country’s politics, economy, and daily lives.