Internet access in Iran, gradually restored over the past four weeks, remains heavily restricted and monitored by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with users reporting an online environment significantly altered since the January 8 internet blackout and the subsequent violent crackdown on protesters. This ongoing digital siege has left more than 75 million internet users contending with severe limitations.
The current online environment, according to users, bears little resemblance to what existed before the January 8 internet blackout. CITNA reported that 68% of active Instagram users have not returned to the platform following the restoration of internet access, a platform that has remained restricted since the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in its fourth year.
Intensified Digital Siege
A source familiar with Iran’s communications sector indicated that the government reopened the internet under specific conditions imposed by the Supreme National Security Council on the Supreme Council of Cyberspace. These conditions aimed to alter the quality of access to, and control over, the global internet, making it far more manageable and controllable for state authorities.
VPN services, once a common workaround, now fail to provide reliable access to restricted platforms like Instagram, and are themselves heavily monitored and tracked. Surveillance and monitoring efforts to update blocklists have intensified on an hour-by-hour basis, rendering virtually all solutions and workarounds proposed by internet platforms and activists with very limited lifespans.
The only viable solution for widespread, less monitored access, according to the source, would be the widespread availability of Starlink to millions of people, enabling house-to-house networks. However, estimates suggest only around half a million people across the country, primarily in northern Tehran, currently have access to Starlink.
Users accessing domestic websites risk identification and tracking if careless, as security agencies have established various traps targeting Starlink applicants, fostering distrust of providers. Raids by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the police, and the Ministry of Intelligence on private homes to confiscate Starlink equipment have intensified, in some cases leading to violent confrontations, injury, or even death.
The Tiered Apartheid of Access
The return of connectivity, following an 88-day shutdown described by outside monitors as one of the longest nationwide blackouts ever recorded, allowed more images and testimony documenting the January crackdown and broader civilian toll to emerge online. Simultaneously, the Islamic Republic’s security agencies utilized this reopening to hunt down opponents and individuals communicating with journalists abroad or sending information to outside media.
Niko, a young protester in Tehran, described extensive controls, stating that while the Islamic Republic claims restored access, speeds are reduced to the point where even previously functional VPNs are practically unusable. Niko warned that using government-approved applications while a VPN is active could lead to immediate identification and access cut-off, effectively wasting money paid for VPN services. In her most recent message, sent while the Islamic Republic and the United States had once again been involved in hostilities despite a ceasefire, she expressed concern, stating, "If they cut the internet again, our situation will become even worse. The next step for the Islamic Republic will probably be to take away our mobile phones."
Tara Dachek, a human rights activist based in Canada, asserted that the internet situation in Iran extends beyond mere censorship, with the scope of filtering so expanded that previously possible communications are no longer achievable. Dachek noted that Starlink access is difficult due to rising costs, increased difficulty in bringing equipment into the country, and harsher penalties.
Dachek further detailed Iran’s tiered internet system, which divides users into several categories with sharply different levels of access. One group, often affiliated with intelligence institutions, enjoys unrestricted access to the entire internet, using it to monitor, track activists, and infiltrate opposition circles.
The second tier consists of regime agents and officials who have access to most internet content, excluding certain blacklisted sites, and are responsible for propaganda and routine government operations. A third group, described as insiders, faces greater restrictions but can still access platforms such as X, benefiting from what is often called a form of white internet.
At the lowest level are ordinary citizens, comprising the vast majority of users, who have access to almost no content beyond approved material and Islamic Republic applications, where surveillance and monitoring are easily carried out. According to Dachek, this classification system is central to determining which voices inside the country are allowed to be heard and which are silenced.
Resistance Under Surveillance
Well-known figures such as rapper Toomaj Salehi, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, and numerous civil rights activists, including Sepideh Qolian, have faced extensive threats under this system. Some users who posted content on Instagram interpreted as criticism of the war have recently published images of judicial summonses, ordering them to appear before Revolutionary Prosecutors’ Offices for questioning and prosecution.
Beyond repression and political control, internet shutdowns in Iran have contributed to rising levels of depression among young people. Research presented by the author at the Global Communication Association conference in Casablanca the previous year indicated that internet filtering in Iran increases depression and hopelessness among young people.
While digital freedom remains a central demand for many Iranians, these shutdowns also create risks for the authorities by intensifying public anger and potentially pushing political grievances from online spaces into public protest. President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Sunday that if people reach the limits of their endurance, they will once again flood the streets.