Abbas Amanat

There are probably some of them even 24 hours or close, very extensive coverage of every clip that comes through.

So what the government is doing now, the Islamic Republic, is that they restrict

The entire internet.

They shut down the internet.

They shut down the internet, but they cannot afford shutting down the internet because much of the business, much of the everyday life, much of the government affairs depends on the internet like everywhere else.

And Iran is extremely...

If I hear from many of the colleagues and friends, you know, it's like in certain respects it's like Sweden.

Where you go there, there's no more currency.

And for a very good reason, because there's so much inflation that the banknotes are worthless in a sense.

So everything is through, you know, sweeping your card.

Right.

And that entire system is in standstill because people cannot buy food.

You go to the supermarket, that's how you would do it.

You order food to come to your house, which Iranians, at least the middle classes, the more prosperous middle classes, doing all the time.

So they deliver everything.

And because of the COVID, it became even more.

And they have to pay all through this system.

So what happens is that now they're estimating that every day $50 million, the Iranian government or the Iranian economy is losing because of slowing the internet.

Among other things.

I mean, they are in touch with WhatsApp.