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Record internet blockade in Iran exposes unprecedented digital isolation, with millions limited to a government-controlled internal network after military attacks and severe global connectivity restrictions, according to independent monitoring.
Iran has entered the 37th consecutive day of severe internet restriction and has recorded the longest national blockade ever documented in the world, according to the monitoring organization NetBlocks, which reported 864 hours of accumulated outages as of this Sunday and classified the situation as surpassing other comparable blackouts in scale and severity.
The new record was achieved after the country’s international connectivity plummeted to about 1% of normal levels, in a scenario of digital isolation that worsened shortly after the start of attacks conducted by the United States and Israel on February 28.
Since then, most of the population has come to rely solely on internal services controlled by the Iranian regime.
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Record digital blackout and national impact
In a post on platform X, NetBlocks stated that the Iranian blackout has become the longest ever seen on a national scale.
The organization also highlighted a unique feature of the case: unlike historically isolated countries, Iran had previously enjoyed broad international connectivity and then retreated to a closed, heavily filtered domestic network.
This point helps explain why the episode has come to be treated as a negative milestone among experts in digital freedom.
North Korea often appears as an extreme example of isolation, but the parallel drawn now is different, as the Iranian case combines almost total external disconnection with the maintenance of a national intranet for state-authorized services.
Restriction after military attacks and recent history
In practice, the measure affects a country with more than 85 million inhabitants and compromises both communication between families and professional activities, online transactions, and access to independent information.
The Associated Press had already reported, in early January, that the disconnection left the country practically isolated from the rest of the world amid internal repression.
The current blockade did not arise in isolation.
On January 8, Iranian authorities had already imposed a national blackout during protests against the economic crisis, and the restriction was only relaxed on January 28, still under heavy filters and with limited access to a controlled list of websites and platforms.
The partial resumption of that access, however, did not mean normalization.
When the attacks on February 28 began, the country again registered a collapse in connectivity, initially around 4% of the usual standard and, days later, near 1%, according to measurements gathered by NetBlocks and cited by international media.
National network replaces global internet
The use of the Iranian national network, built years ago to allow local services even without full connection to the global internet, has become the main available alternative.
This keeps some domestic channels active, but under greater surveillance and with strong content limitations, which reduces the circulation of independent reports on the military and political situation in the country.
Starlink faces limits in Iran
It was in this environment that Starlink, the satellite internet service from SpaceX, returned to the center of the debate.
Although Elon Musk’s network has been used by some Iranians to circumvent censorship and previous blackouts, sources interviewed by Reuters reported in January that access was restricted, concentrated in specific areas, and subject to attempts at blocking and interference by the authorities.
The limitation arises not only from state repression but also from the reduced scale of the operation.
Starlink is not officially authorized in Iran, relies on physical terminals that are difficult to distribute in large quantities, and, according to reports cited by agencies and experts, may suffer electronic interference, preventing the tool from replacing conventional connectivity for most of the population.
Economic and social impacts of isolation
Still, the search for ways to escape the blockade has grown since the beginning of the year.
International coverage has reported pressure from activists to expand satellite access and described parallel efforts by Iranian citizens and the diaspora to maintain minimal communication channels, in a context where apps, work platforms, and authentication services have also been affected.
The economic and social impact of isolation also frequently appears in assessments of the case.
Reports gathered by observers and international journalism indicate that digital companies, payment methods, online advertising, and corporate routines have been impacted, while the blockade complicates independent verification of abuses, deaths, and arrests during times of war or internal repression.
Comparison with other blackouts in the world
When comparing the Iranian case with other prolonged blackouts, NetBlocks emphasized that there have been long and intermittent episodes in places like Myanmar, Sudan, Kashmir, and Tigray.
Even so, the organization maintains that none of them combined, for so long, a state order of such scope with the near elimination of international internet for an entire country.
This diagnosis helps to frame why the blockade in Iran has come to be observed not only as a measure of censorship but as part of the very control strategy amid the conflict.
The less circulation of images, messages, and testimonies, the harder it becomes to track in real time the effects of bombings, repression, and decisions made by the authorities.
The country’s persistence in an intranet regime reinforces this scenario.
Instead of a total and homogeneous drop in all services, the model preserves selected internal structures while simultaneously restricting communication with the outside, creating a routine where part of digital life continues to function, but under a much narrower and supervised reach.
With 864 accumulated hours and entering the 37th consecutive day, the ongoing blockade has placed Iran back at the center of the global debate on censorship in times of war and established an unprecedented precedent: that of a state that, after years of connection to the global network, managed to push millions of users back to an isolated national internet.
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