Iran in ‘Digital Darkness’ as War Triggers Prolonged Internet Blackout
Amid the ongoing war in the Middle East, Iranian citizens have been connected to an intranet under a two-tier internet system on national security grounds. As a result, Iran has effectively remained disconnected from the global internet for the past four weeks, or 30 days. Internet monitoring organization NetBlocks has described the situation as “digital darkness.”
NetBlocks reported that Iranians have been cut off from the outside world for the past four weeks. However, this is not the first instance of internet disruption in the country this year. The month-long blackout or internet outage has severely violated Iranian citizens’ fundamental rights to access information and communication.
Earlier, in January, the country’s authorities also shut down internet services nationwide for several weeks during anti-government protests.
The report further noted that Iran is currently operating a two-tier internet system. In the first tier, only high-ranking government officials and individuals associated with the ruling establishment have uninterrupted access to the global internet.
In the second tier, the main internet network available to ordinary citizens has been significantly restricted. Most of them are compelled to rely on the country’s own “National Information Network,” which is essentially a domestic and tightly controlled internal network.
DBTech/NA/MUM/OR
