Iran has surpassed one thousand hours of nationwide internet connectivity blockage.

Iran continues to block the internet: a 1,000‑hour “digital war”

At the end of February, the Iranian government announced a complete shutdown of the internet across the country, justifying it with a statement about the start of a military operation by the United States and Israel. As of today, the blockade has lasted over 1,000 hours and is considered one of the longest in the history of such events.

What’s happening to Starlink users?

According to Tom’s Hardware, having a Starlink satellite terminal does not save Iranian users. On the contrary, device owners may face the threat of capital punishment. For almost 44 days, the internet has been unavailable in Iran, and authorities are actively trying to suppress the operation of the Starlink network using military equipment – as reported back in January. In addition, servers of American companies (OpenAI, Microsoft, Apple, Google) that serve Iranian armed forces have become targets of threats, although no direct actions have taken place yet.

Statistics from NetBlocks

NetBlocks, a service that monitors internet shutdowns, records that over more than 43 days, traffic in Iran remains at only 1 % of normal levels. According to Cloudflare, the remaining percentage is generated by a limited number of official users who are allowed access to resources from a “whitelist.” Within the country, all traffic passes through monitoring systems that allow only pre‑approved sites.

Context and economic consequences

This is not the first mass internet shutdown in Iran this year. On January 8, the network was blocked during large protests; by the end of January restrictions were partially eased but never fully lifted. By mid‑February, traffic volume had fallen to just 50 % of its previous level.

Such measures have severely impacted the country’s online economy: trade fell by 80 %, and each day of shutdown in January cost Iran roughly $35.7 million.