Iran internet blackout reaches 6th day as rights groups call for end to digital shutdown

The internet shutdown in Iran that began at the start of the war with the U.S. and Israel entered its sixth day on Friday, with human rights groups calling on Iran’s leaders to restore digital access.

Multiple internet access monitors — including NetBlocks, Cloudflare and Ioda — tracked a nationwide blackout starting on February 28 following air strikes across the country. Internet traffic in Iran dropped by 98%, the monitors said. 

Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks, confirmed that the blackout is ongoing but noted that Iranian authorities appear to be distributing whitelisted service accounts which allow certain people access to the internet more freely than during the January blackout, which is why some pro-regime accounts continued to post openly.

While some with access to the domestic intranet have found brief circumventions around the blackout, Toker said it is slow and unreliable. Only pre-approved websites are accessible through the country’s National Information Network.

“Standard VPN protocols don't work as there is no route out. Multi-hop tunnels, popular in earlier years, are also mostly unavailable now because datacenters are cut off from the international internet too at this point,” he said. 

Censorship measures are tight, according to Toker, but there is a concerted effort by Iran’s government to let pro-regime voices through the blackout. 

“Overall, this is still a tiny fragment of the population, but it's enough for a trickle of information to flow freely,” he added. 

There are also unverified reports that Iranian police have sent out mass texts threatening to arrest anyone who uses VPNs or Starlink to connect to the internet. 

On Friday, experts at Human Rights Watch called on Iran’s government to immediately end the internet shutdown, warning that it was placing civilians in further harm. 

Tomiwa Ilori, senior technology and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said limiting internet availability during times of crisis restricts access to lifesaving information such as where people can receive medical care or maps of where air strikes are occurring. People are unable to contact family members or find resources for food and shelter during hostilities due to the shutdown. 

“Internet shutdowns can also contribute to severe psychological harm on people during the conflict as they are unable to contact their loved ones,” Ilori said. 

“The international community, including policy makers and companies, should explore technical and regulatory measures to help civilians access the internet in conflict settings.”

Human Rights Watch said military attacks by the U.S. and Israel “do not justify blanket internet shutdowns in the country.”

Iran’s government has repeatedly shut down the internet in times of attack or crisis, launching digital blackouts most recently during the protests in January and during Israeli airstrikes last June. 

The internet blackouts in January lasted for three weeks and coincided with reported massacresby security forces. Multiple protest movements over the last five years have been repressed in part through internet shutdowns.