Iran’s state-imposed near-total internet shutdown is now the longest nationwide blackout on record in any country, according to global monitor NetBlocks. Connectivity to the global internet has been at around one percent of pre-war levels since shortly after the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran on February 28.
Another 20-day internet shutdown was imposed in January, when thousands were killed during nationwide protests, meaning that most Iranian civilians have now spent close to two-thirds of 2026 in digital darkness – with only a limited and at times slow intranet serving to offer some basic services and allow access to state-run news and messaging services. NetBlocks said on Sunday that Iran is the first country to have had internet connectivity and then subsequently lost it by reverting to a national network.
The monitor added that while Myanmar, Sudan, Kashmir and Tigray have had incidents of longer intermittent blackouts, none has experienced a state-imposed shutdown at this scale for this long. During the January shutdown, the government said that many online businesses could not survive more than three weeks of being disconnected, and that the beleaguered economy was haemorrhaging tens of millions of dollars in direct damages each day, not to mention the untold indirect and cumulative effects of a nationwide blackout.
More than five weeks into the war, the government has not explained how it expects the remnants of the country’s battered digital sector and its globally isolated economy to get through the coming months and years, even if a highly unlikely diplomatic breakthrough stops the war soon. Kamran, a product designer at a technology firm in Karaj near Tehran, said he survived a wave of layoffs in January but did not survive this latest wave, being told he was let go on Saturday, the first working day after the Nowruz holidays.
He told Al Jazeera that he has found a local group where people list their skills and others help match them with job opportunities, but expressed extreme concern about finding gainful employment in the foreseeable future due to the large number of other job seekers. A senior data analyst at a Tehran-based firm who asked to remain anonymous said his company agreed to offer lower pay raises than expected to avoid downsizing for now, but bosses are only offering three-month contracts, creating a prevailing sense that many will have to leave after that time.
The devastating bombing of Iran’s top steel factories, petrochemical firms and other civilian infrastructure is expected to exacerbate economic conditions already defined by rampant inflation and high unemployment long before the war. The minority of Iranians connected to the internet are either directly permitted – or whitelisted – by the state, or have paid exorbitant amounts for proxy connections that sometimes last hours before being taken down by authorities.
As government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani put it last month, the government is only allowing those who can “get the voice out” to have internet, including top officials, state-affiliated figures, and news agencies. Some whitelisted individuals and even disconnected state supporters write on X or comment sections of local news sites that they are happy to accommodate the situation, deeming it a wartime necessity.
Left in the dark with a highly uncertain future, many do not share this sentiment. Another Tehran resident told Al Jazeera that she and friends gathered at home to share updates from brief connectivity periods, state TV, foreign satellite networks, and endless calls and texts, while state supporters congregate in mosques and squares. She noted concerns about layoffs, electricity availability, and basic utilities like water pumps during power outages, contrasting this with live feeds from the moon like Artemis II.
After the United States bombed a newly built bridge west of Tehran, US President Donald Trump vowed to attack power plants and more bridges on Tuesday to convince Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to stop blocking the Strait of Hormuz – something it has firmly rejected. Iranian authorities have taken steps towards implementing a tiered internet system, indicating intentions to maintain severe restrictions even after the war.
A “guide to connect to international internet for businesses” has been circulated, urging contact with an official account on the state-run messaging app Bale to apply. Journalists reported receiving texts from an unknown sender titled “Internet Pro” with a registry link from a top telecom provider for future connectivity. Another state-linked telecom carrier released steps for its “Internet Pro” version, to be sold as one-year data packages costing more than normal ones.
Internet service providers have not refunded customers or lowered prices despite not providing global internet access, with some users reporting mobile data depleting faster during the war. The administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, which made unblocking Iran’s internet a central campaign promise less than two years ago, has not offered an official explanation for the shutdown.
Source: www.aljazeera.com