Following widespread and repeated internet shutdowns in Iran ordered by regime officials, reports by trade and professional organizations show that the economic consequences of these decisions have pushed the livelihoods of millions of Iranians to the brink of collapse. Those affected range from Instagram sellers and content creators to knowledge-based companies, home-based businesses, local enterprises, students, researchers, physicians, and anyone whose work, customers, or audiences depend on stable and unrestricted internet access for even the most basic academic, professional, or commercial activities.
As runaway inflation continues and the value of the Iranian rial declines further amid a wartime atmosphere, on Tuesday, June 9, the U.S. dollar reached a new record high of 1.8 million rials in Iran’s market.
Under such circumstances, internet shutdowns mean the loss of the last remaining source of income for millions of people, the closure of businesses, and complete exclusion from the labor market. Messages received from various cities across Iran confirm this reality.
Iran’s Regime Grudgingly Backs Down from its Longest Internet Shutdown
Admissions by Regime Officials
The crisis is not limited to small businesses. Alireza Esteghamati, dean of the School of Medicine at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, stated that internet restrictions had disrupted the university’s scientific and educational activities. Professors were forced to take turns using the available internet services. He emphasized that many academic tasks, including preparing classes and lectures—work usually carried out at home during evening hours—had been hindered by internet disruptions.
The Iranian regime has also criminalized the use of Starlink satellite internet. Reports from the judiciary indicate that hundreds of people have been arrested solely for purchasing Starlink equipment. As a result, many citizens seeking unrestricted internet access are forced either to buy expensive and insecure VPN services or to risk arrest and prosecution.
Even some officials of the Iranian regime have been compelled to acknowledge the scale of the crisis. Among them is Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, vice president for rural development and deprived areas under Iranian regime president Masoud Pezeshkian, who said that internet shutdowns have created serious difficulties for many home-based businesses, local producers, and women entrepreneurs in securing even basic livelihoods.
He stressed that the internet is no longer merely a tool for entertainment but a source of livelihood for many households. He added that providing special “pro” internet access to entrepreneurs alone cannot solve the problem because customers also need access to unrestricted internet.
$80 Million in Daily Losses
Online business operators have repeatedly stated that an internet business cannot survive merely because the seller remains connected. If customers cannot access a page, place orders, make payments, or send messages, sales effectively come to a halt.
Etemad, a Tehran-based newspaper, reported on May 4 that the direct losses caused by internet restrictions were estimated at $30 million to $40 million per day. Including indirect consequences, the figure could reach as high as $80 million daily.
According to Etemad, the livelihoods of more than 10 million people have been affected directly or indirectly by these conditions.
Reza Alfatnasab, head of the Union of Virtual Businesses, told Khabar Online that sales at some large businesses had fallen by 40% to 50%, while small and medium-sized enterprises had experienced declines of 50% to 70%. He noted that around 2,000 companies in Iran have the capacity to survive only one to two months under current conditions, while micro-businesses can endure even less.
The Iranian news website Eghtesad News has also confirmed that internet outages have significantly reduced employment opportunities and intensified competition among workers. According to the report, jobs tied to the digital economy—including startups, content creators, and online service providers—have suffered the most from internet shutdowns, with some companies laying off more than 50% of their workforce. Women have been particularly affected, as female employment has declined by 233,000 jobs and their labor force participation rate has fallen to 12.2%.
Alongside this crisis, the VPN market has become a lucrative black-market economy for some individuals linked to senior regime officials. The state-run news website Rouydad24 reported that as restrictions intensified, VPN services became an essential household expense, with the market’s turnover reaching tens of trillions of rials.
Experts say that some VPN services that continue to function easily despite restrictions would not be able to operate without access to special infrastructure and substantial bandwidth. This has reinforced unofficial reports that groups connected to the internet-filtering apparatus are profiting from the VPN market.
Ettela’at newspaper, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by the Iranian regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, warned in an editorial that several-hundred-percent increases in the prices of essential goods, stagnation in the labor market, disruptions in parts of the production chain, and internet shutdowns—which had served as the foundation for many online businesses—have created a severe crisis that cannot be ignored through platitudes or vague statements.
Internet shutdowns are a tool used by the Iranian regime, and whenever society moves toward unrest and protest, the regime attempts to suppress the population by cutting access. An example cited is January 8 and 9, when, according to the text, the Iranian regime shut down internet and media access and killed thousands of people in order to conceal the scale of the killings.
