Ben Rhodes

There has been an internet blackout since last Thursday.

Tons of people are pushing different narratives on social media.

There's definitely some bots out there moving stuff around, interested parties pushing a different narrative.

So I kind of just think that anyone outside the country doesn't have anything close to a complete picture.

But a number of human rights groups say there has been a massive crackdown

by Iranian security forces in recent days in a massacre of protesters.

On Tuesday, CBS News reported that one source told them that at least 12,000 people have been killed and possibly as many as 20,000 are dead.

That number is way higher than other estimates I've seen.

Other groups put it between 500 and 6000 sort of confirmed cases.

I mean, either way, it's horrible.

Tens of thousands of people are being arrested and we'll never know that number.

So also, you know, sources in Iran have told news outlets like The Times or the BBC that basically security forces are firing birdshot like pellet guns at protesters to blind them.

And the ones that fight back, they're just gunning down with machine guns.

And to your point, Iranian state TV

released a video from a morgue in Tehran where you can see just dozens of bodies.

Do you get why they would do that?

Is it like a threat?

I saw one person speculate that they were trying to suggest that outside agitators are responsible for this.

Anyway, yeah, it's awful.

But hospitals are overrun, they're running out of supplies, it's awful.