Iran’s internet shutdown is chillingly precise and may last some time

Iran's internet shutdown represents a “new high-water mark” in terms of its sophistication and severity—and could last a long time. As the blackout kicked in, 90 percent of internet traffic to Iran evaporated. International calls to the country appeared blocked, and domestic mobile phones had no service, said Amir Rashidi, an Iranian digital rights expert. This is far from the first time a country has blocked the internet for political reasons. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak blocked the internet for six days during the 2011 Tahrir protests, and the Taliban shut down Afghanistan’s for 48 hours in September 2025, ostensibly to curb “immorality”. But the level of shutdown in Iran is unprecedented and in some ways far harsher than its 2019 digital blackout, which internet observers described at the time as the most “severe disconnection” they had seen anywhere. Even Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system, which was a lifeline for Iranians during the 2022 protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, was being jammed, Rashidi said, although the extent varied from one neighbourhood to another. While Iranians across the country were suddenly cut off from the internet, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, continues to post on X. This is what makes this blackout different from previous internet blockages in Iran, said Doug Madory, an expert in internet infrastructure who studies such disruptions. It is more sweeping, but also appears to be more fine-tuned, which potentially means Tehran will be able to sustain it for longer.