The Islamic Republic of Iran shut down the internet in an unprecedented manner, plunging more than 87 million people into total information darkness. The complete and widespread internet shutdown in Iran after 190 hours is no longer just a communication and information issue; rather, the continued shutdown over this long period has now become an economic, livelihood, and vital crisis that directly affects people’s daily lives. From disruptions in banking services and the failure of card readers to difficulties in obtaining basic necessities and purchasing medicine, disruptions in critical hospital care, and disruptions to the education process, it has affected the lives of Iranian citizens.

In addition, the millions of dollars in damages that an internet shutdown inflicts on Iran’s fragile economy every hour is devastating, and its compensation and reconstruction will be far-reaching and challenging.

What is happening in a silent and isolated Iran?

The level of internet blackout in Iran over the past eight days is unprecedented and in some ways far more severe than the digital blackouts of 2019, 2021 and 2025. A more targeted and technically advanced information disruption that is now moving not towards reducing but rather intensifying this restriction.

According to Iranians who have left the country spoke news outlets, phones have no antennas. No cell towers or masts are working.

In the early days of the protests, many online banking services were suspended, a large number of ATMs were inactive, and in most shops and stores, POS machines were not working and vendors were demanding cash from people. Transferring money, paying bills, online shopping and even some in-person operations such as checking checks and “SATNA” and “PAYA” were facing problems, and some ATMs only provided very basic services such as balance statements or were completely unavailable.

Although banks in Iran depend on internal internet networks called intranets to continue their services, even these networks have limited functionality without a stable and coordinated connection, and with this internal network, banks are only able to carry out internal transactions. However, fixed POS machines and ATMs should be able to operate because they work with telephone lines and intranets, and this question arises as to whether some services are intentionally not provided to the people in some cities and regions of the country?

Although the situation of providing the necessities of life in some cities has been reported to be normal, reports from some counties say that people are even having trouble buying bread.

According to news the severity of these problems varies from city to city, but we cannot even buy dry bread here because flour has not reached the bakeries and the bakeries are selling one or two loaves of bread per person. Only one in three or four supermarkets is open, and the card reader either doesn’t work or you have to swipe your card 10 times to get it to connect.

A handful of ATMs are working, but you can only withdraw a limited amount, which is not enough to buy a chicken.

The continued internet outage for a longer period of time and the disruption of the ability to make purchases with bank cards, place orders, shop online, and purchase and distribute basic goods will lead to a shortage and higher prices of basic and food items for the people, and along with a drop in retail sales, people will face serious problems in meeting their daily needs.

The extent and duration of the internet outage in Iran

In a situation where about 8 days have passed since the telephone, internet, and communications outage in Iran, Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, has posted at least 40 times on the social network X in Persian and English since Thursday, writing against Iranian protesters and the US president.

While almost all mainstream and local media, from websites to television, have been deactivated and are practically silent inside Iran, only the state-run Tasnim and the Islamic Republic Radio and Television are allowed to operate and report news.

In addition, some state and media Telegram channels are also active, which shows that administrators of some institutions still have access to the global internet. On Friday, the government temporarily activated the services of some university websites and then cut them off again.

All of this shows that the Islamic Republic, this time, has more precise tools for internet censorship. According to the Guardian, if they finally implement the whitelist and use the internet according to their desired plan, they can keep Iran in this isolated and restricted internet situation for a long time.

According to the Guardian expert, “What they are doing is trying to set it up so that they don’t have to turn everything back on. They only need the bare minimum to communicate and then they cut everything off.”

In this way, the government is drastically reducing the effectiveness of filter breakers by reducing internet access, without actually having to cut off the entire internet. “This action makes it impossible or very difficult for the average user to access platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, while internal banking and administrative services remain active, so it looks like this internet shutdown will be large and long-lasting.”

The reality is that after the November 2019 protests, when the complete internet shutdown paralyzed the banking system and public services, the government moved with double speed towards localizing internet infrastructure and establishing a national internet.

Today, most critical services, from banking transactions to online taxis Snap, Tapsi, and online shopping platforms Digikala and Alibaba, are hosted on Mizba’s internal servers.