Iran slowly reconnects to the global internet

Traffic from Iran to the global internet fell to about one percent of normal levels after attacks in February, with remaining connectivity limited to a small group of mostly government and military users. Iran’s vice-president Mohammad Reza Aref announced the first step toward free and regulated access to cyberspace. Shortly afterward, monitoring services recorded substantial traffic returning to and from Iran for the first time in 88 days. Network observers say the shutdown is among the longest on record, and analysts note Iran’s use of selective access for favored users while blocking others. Filtering appears to remain, with workarounds possible, and access to WhatsApp has been restricted. Iran previously justified disconnections as national security measures during conflicts and protests.

"In the days after the USA and Israel attacked Iran in February, traffic from the Gulf nation to the global internet dropped to just one percent of usual volumes - with the remaining trickle of traffic thought to be the result of a policy allowing access to a small group of mostly government and military users."

"Not long afterwards, NetBlocks and Cloudflare both recorded substantial traffic flowing to and from Iran for the first time in 88 days. Outage-watchers at network observability outfit Kentik believe Iran's disconnection is the longest such incident since Libya's six-month shutdown in 2011."

""Along with the sheer number of people cut off from the world, what makes this shutdown unique is Iran's use of an elaborate system to selectively allow internet access for some favored individuals and organizations, while blocking the internet for everyone else, a practice referred to as either whitelisting or a tiered internet," he wrote in April."

"NetBlocks thinks filtering of content remains in place, "but can be worked around," but has also observed that Iran's government has now restricted access to Meta's messaging service WhatsApp. Iran's government said it blocked connections to the outside world as a national security measure."

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