Anti-regime demonstrations in Iran continue to escalate, alarming the Islamist regime into shutting off the internet to parts of the country Thursday evening. Data from internet monitoring group NetBlocks show a precipitous decline in internet connectivity in Tehran and several other cities. The Associated Press failed to establish phone connections, suggesting that the government shut off phone service as well.

The internet blackout is the Iranian regime’s most severe action to date to suppress the protests, suggesting the regime is preparing to crack down vigorously. Over the past two decades, Tehran has brutally suppressed other protest movements, and internet blackouts are a favorite tool to prevent protestors from coordinating with one another.

On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signaled a crackdown was coming in a brief speech aired on state television. He accused demonstrators of “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy,” referring to President Donald Trump. Separately, Iranian judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei suggested punishment for the protestors would “be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.”

The severity of these threats suggests the desperation felt by the regime, which is far weaker now than it was before its catastrophic war with Israel last June. After nearly two weeks of protests, the regime has killed at least 34 demonstrators and arrested more than 2,000, but the demonstrations continue to look more and more like full-blown rebellion.

Within days, protesters were calling for the downfall of the regime and the return of the shah. More recently, protestors have escalated to “violent confrontations” with security forces, notes the Middle East Forum. When confronted, “Protesters responded by throwing stones, bricks, and in some cases Molotov cocktails. In areas where police and Basij [pro-government militia] forces withdrew, protesters set fire to their vehicles. Videos circulated showing government buildings ablaze and several police stations overrun.”

Although the details are hard for outside observers to verify, the demonstrators seemingly grow bolder with each passing day. On January 7, protestors toppled a statue of former Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani. Some demonstrators have disabled security cameras, a symbol of the regime’s repressive policing, while others reportedly set fire to the regime’s radio and television broadcast office in Isfahan, Iran’s second-largest city.

In some of the deadly clashes, the demonstrators have killed security officers, a new factor that may have prompted the regime to shut off internet services. Ali Safavi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said “the internet was cut off in Lordegan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari provinces as battles erupted.”

Some reports suggest that the demonstrations have grown so large that security forces have declined to intervene, been overwhelmed, retreated, or even joined with the demonstrators. In Khamenei’s home city of Mashhad, seen as a conservative regime stronghold, an estimated one million protestors turned out (Mashhad is Iran’s third-largest city with a population of 3.4 million).

In some smaller, outlying cities, there are reports that the protestors have taken complete control. These reports are credible enough for the official X account for the Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to claim that “protestors are … claiming entire cities.”

In contrast to previous protests, the current movement has received substantial international encouragement, including from Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the Israeli foreign ministry, and President Trump himself, who warned he would take action if the Iranian regime began killing protestors.

Now that Tehran has shut off the internet, a brutal crackdown may just be its next step. Fortunately, some Iranians have been able to evade the internet and phone blackout through satellite technology like Starlink. However, it may now be time for President Trump to take decisive action if he wants the Iranian protests to succeed.