As the widespread uprising of people in Iran continues and intensifies, reports indicate that the internet in many cities has faced severe slowdowns, disruptions, and in some cases complete outages.
NetBlocks, an organization that monitors internet access worldwide, wrote in a message on the social media platform X on Thursday, January 8: “Live network data show #Tehran and other parts of Iran are now entering a digital blackout, as connectivity falls on multiple providers; the new incident follows regional shutdowns, and is likely to severely limit coverage of events on the ground as protests spread.”
⚠️ Update: Live network data show #Tehran and other parts of Iran are now entering a digital blackout, as connectivity falls on multiple providers; the new incident follows regional shutdowns, and is likely to severely limit coverage of events on the ground as protests spread 📉 pic.twitter.com/cVZE311VNY
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) January 8, 2026
NetBlocks added that this occurred simultaneously with the spread of protests across the country on their twelfth day, at a time when the number of victims is rising and signs of disruption are also being observed in several other regions.
At the same time, some media outlets in Iran reported on Thursday that fixed-line and mobile internet services in various cities have been experiencing severe slowdowns, instability, and repeated disconnections.
The Citna news website wrote: “Disruption or deactivation of IPv6 in the country’s internet network leads to increased latency, unstable connections, and problems in services such as internet calls, online games, and some cloud services.”
Reports circulating on social media also confirm widespread outages and disruptions to the internet in Iran.
On January 5, Sattar Hashemi, the Iranian regime’s minister of communications and information technology, confirmed internet restrictions and outages due to nationwide protests in Iran.
Hashemi added: “People have demands and protests, but at the same time there is serious concern about businesses being harmed in the event of internet disruption or outages, and this concern is completely understandable.”
Earlier, the Persian-language account of the U.S. Department of State on X, referring to widespread internet shutdowns and severe communication disruptions—especially in cities where national uprising protests are underway—wrote that even VPNs and other censorship-circumvention tools have been blocked, cutting off many Iranians’ connection to the outside world.
During the 12-day war, telecommunications and internet services in Iran were widely cut off, a measure implemented by the Iranian regime’s security authorities under the pretext of “protecting national security.”
The Iranian regime had previously disrupted and shut down the internet multiple times during protests.
During the 2019 protests, known as the Bloody November, Iran’s government cut off the internet for one week and began the killing of protesters in a media blackout.
In 2023, on the fourth anniversary of that massacre, the internet in Iran was again disrupted and, in some areas, completely shut down.
