The Islamic regime has now entered its 20th day of Internet blackout. However, the current disruption is less severe than during the January protests, Amir Rashidi, director of cyber security and digital rights at the Miaan Group, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
The Miaan Group, a Texas-based nonprofit focused on human rights, digital security, and civil society in Iran, analyzed connectivity levels under the Islamic regime and found that current restrictions fall between those imposed in January 2026 and those seen during the 12 Day War.
In January, the regime shut down the local national information network in response to the demonstrations, which broke out over discontent at Iran’s dire financial situation.
The January blackout rendered it impossible to make phone calls or text locally or internationally, suppressing all attempts at communication.
Nevertheless, such networks were allowed to run during the war in June last year.
Now, Rashidi explained, local networks were running but “acting kind of weird.” He explained that local apps, such as SnappFood, worked unless something reset the app, such as the session ending or the device restarting.
Rashidi admitted that, with limited access from outside Iran, he couldn’t prove his theory, but suggested, based on his 20 years of experience, that the issues with the applications were not due to bugs or cyberattacks.
Chaharshanbe Suri, the last Wednesday before the Iranian New Year, was celebrated recently, and Israeli and opposition figures called for civilians to return to protests in the streets. Rashidi said that he believed the Islamic regime had readied the technology for another complete shutdown, anticipating the need to suppress more signs of dissent.
Iranians defy crackdown, celebrate festival amid unrest
Despite the crackdown, Iran International reported receiving videos showing people celebrating the pre-Islamic era festival in Tehran, Karaj, Shiraz, and Mashhad.
The diaspora news site reported that calls for the return of Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi were heard during the festivities, and security forces were unable to disperse the crowds.
Sources in Iran told Rashidi that people had largely left Tehran, and those who stayed were not leaving their homes. Food, while easily accessible, has nearly tripled in price, and medication not produced locally has become difficult to acquire.
The fear of leaving home, combined with a large amount of internal migration, has left hospitals at a third of their normal capacity to treat patients, with overburdened waiting rooms.
Education had been largely online in recent months due to Iran’s water crisis. But students are currently on their new year break, so their education has yet to be affected by the lack of connectivity, he said.
Rashidi did not share how he obtained information from inside Iran.
International media have recently reported that civilians have found workarounds to the country’s communication embargoes in connecting with family members abroad. BBC News reported on Sunday that some Iranians were paying the equivalent of NIS 118 to make four to five-minute calls through an intermediary on a Turkish network.
Other Iranians are paying more than NIS 60 per gigabyte of VPN data, which is costly for the average citizen, especially amid the country’s hyperinflation crisis.
UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mai Sato, wrote in her official report that the Internet shutdown was devastating small and medium-sized enterprises reliant on online platforms. Some companies reported revenue losses of up to 90 percent during the shutdown, and millions of workers were directly or indirectly affected by the disruptions.