On January 30, global network surveillance data confirmed that Iran had begun reopening Internet connections after a nearly 3-week network cut to deal with anti-government protests. However, observers believe that the picture of Internet freedom in this country is still extremely bleak.
According to experts from NetBlocks and Kentik, traffic began to recover from January 27. However, Amir Rashidi - Director of Digital Rights at Miaan Group - warned: "Every time Iran cuts off the network, things usually never return to normal as before". The proof is that after the protests in 2018 and 2022, platforms such as Telegram and Instagram were permanently blocked.
Currently, the Iranian government is promoting a new censorship model called "whitelisting". Instead of blocking each black website as before, Iran is switching to a mechanism that only allows a small group of users to be "security licensed" to access the international Internet.
The majority of the remaining people will be isolated in the national internal network, where all activities are monitored and content is tightly controlled.
Doug Madory, Internet Analysis Director at Kentik, commented that the current traffic chart is very "cluttered", a sign that a new content filtering system may be operating but not yet stable.
In that context, the Iranian people - who are considered one of the most tech-savvy communities in the world - are trying every way to overcome barriers. Mahsa Alimardani from the human rights organization Witness said this war is like a "cat and mouse game".
The biggest rescue today is the Starlink satellite Internet. Although billionaire Elon Musk has provided free of charge this service in Iran, the barrier lies in the transceiver. It is estimated that only about 50,000 sets of Starlink devices are smuggled into this country of 92 million people through unofficial channels.
The risk is very high. Owning Starlink equipment could lead to prison sentences. Authorities are also said to be using electronic warfare tools to jam signals and crack down on households that install pans on rooftops.
In addition to Starlink, virtual private networks (VPNs) are also facing difficulties. Providers such as Proton VPN said that the Iranian government is deploying sophisticated systems to identify and cut off VPN traffic. Notably, US support for these firewall-breaking tools has also declined after the Trump administration cut its foreign aid budget last year.
Widespread network cuts not only affect freedom of information but also cause heavy economic damage. Although the Iranian economy has been separated from the international payment system and services such as Amazon or Uber, internal disruptions still leave great consequences.
The recent network cut is the longest in Iranian history, lasting nearly 2 weeks longer than the 2019 event. At the time of 2019, the former leader of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce estimated economic losses of up to 1.5 billion USD. Experts believe that the damage figure of this wave will certainly be much higher, putting pressure on domestic businesses themselves.
