Iran slowly reconnects to the global internet
Iran has begun restoring internet access after an 88-day shutdown, though filtering and restrictions still remain. The government did not explain why it reversed course now.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
Iran’s government appears to be easing one of the longest internet shutdowns on record, after traffic to and from the country suddenly resumed following 88 days of near-isolation. The move comes with caveats: filtering remains, WhatsApp is still restricted, and officials have not explained the timing.
Iran had a long internet blackout, like a city cutting the phone lines to most homes while keeping a few secret lines open. Now those lines are starting to come back, but not everything is fully open yet.
Special companies that watch internet traffic saw the data start moving again after 88 days. That is a very long time for a country to be partly cut off from the online world.
It matters because the internet is how people talk, learn, do business, and use apps. If a government can turn that off or limit it, it can control what people can see and share.
Analysis
What happened
Iran’s government appears to have started reconnecting the country to the global internet after traffic had fallen to roughly one percent of normal levels in the days after US and Israeli attacks in February. On Tuesday, vice-president Mohammad Reza Aref said on X that “the first step toward free and regulated access to cyberspace has been taken,” and network monitors soon saw traffic flowing again.
How severe the shutdown was
According to outage trackers, the interruption lasted 88 days. Kentik says it may be the longest such incident since Libya’s six-month shutdown in 2011. Internet analyst Doug Madory argued the case is especially notable because Iran’s population is far larger than Libya’s and because access appears to have been selectively granted through a tiered system for favored users rather than being fully open.
What remains unresolved
NetBlocks says content filtering is still in place, though it can be worked around, and it also observed a restriction on Meta’s WhatsApp service. Iran has described the blackout as a national security measure, and the article says the government has used shutdowns before during conflicts and internal protests. Aref said restoring access should help “smart services” and remove barriers to scientific development, but he did not explain why the change is happening now.
Key points
- Iran began reconnecting to the global internet after 88 days of major restrictions.
- Network observers NetBlocks and Cloudflare saw traffic return soon after a statement by vice-president Mohammad Reza Aref.
- Kentik says the outage may be the longest since Libya’s 2011 six-month shutdown.
- Filtering still appears to remain, and NetBlocks says WhatsApp is restricted.
- Iran said the shutdown was for national security, but officials gave no reason for ending it now.
