Background

The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology is the Iranian government body responsible for managing national telecommunications and the National Information Network, Iran's domestic intranet that can be isolated from the global internet.

Iran's nationwide internet blackout entered its 60th consecutive day on 28 April 2026, accumulating an estimated 1,440 hours of restriction, the longest sustained national blackout Netblocks has ever logged. Connectivity held at 1-4% of normal throughout every Ceasefire round and diplomatic circuit, isolating the civilian population informationally.

President Pezeshkian ordered the blackout lifted on 25 May 2026, and NetBlocks confirmed partial restoration the next day after 2,093 cumulative hours, the longest national shutdown on record at a cost exceeding $1bn. Restoration proved partial by design: WhatsApp still required circumvention tools, the filtering layer stayed active, and traffic reached only around 40% of pre-war levels by 28 May.

The filtering layer's durability had a supplier: Mohammad Sarafraz, a member of Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace, disclosed on 23 May that the ministry had already imported Chinese Deep Packet Inspection hardware built for a permanent, switchable blackout, modelled on China's ten-month sealing of Xinjiang from the internet in 2009. The system it now runs is tiered: government loyalists get free, unfiltered 'white internet', paying subscribers get restricted 'Internet Pro' access, and the rest of the population goes offline whenever the state chooses.

Common Questions

Reference

How does Iran shut down its internet?

The Ministry of Communications controls the National Information Network (NIN), Iran's domestic intranet. International internet traffic is routed through a small number of state-controlled exchange points that can be throttled or isolated by administrative order.

Did Iran restore internet access after the blackout?

Partially. President Pezeshkian ordered the blackout lifted on 25 May 2026 after a record 2,093 hours, but traffic reached only around 40% of pre-war levels and filtering stayed active.Source: event

What is Iran's 'white internet' and 'Internet Pro' system?

A tiered access model introduced during the 2026 war: government loyalists get free, unfiltered 'white internet', paying subscribers get restricted 'Internet Pro' access, and most of the population is Left offline.Source: event

What was the longest internet shutdown before Iran in 2026?

Iran's own 2019 shutdown was five days, previously one of the longest on record. The 2026 blackout at 60+ days is twelvefold longer. The previous global record was Myanmar's sustained blackout in Rakhine and Chin states, which lasted over a year but was regional rather than nationwide.Source: Netblocks

Source Material

NetBlocks internet observatory

How the World Sees Them

International community

The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression has called for restoration of internet access; Western governments have condemned the blackout but taken no specific action.

Iran (Islamic Republic)

The government has not publicly acknowledged the blackout as a policy decision; state media frames the connectivity loss as infrastructure disruption caused by external attacks.

Human rights organisations

NetBlocks, Access Now, and Article 19 classify the blackout as a deliberate government information-suppression strategy, noting the precision of its duration correlating with wartime domestic enforcement.