The internet blackout in Iran, first imposed when the United States and Israel launched a joint operation in Tehran, has now entered its fifth week, the longest nationwide shutdown in history, NetBlocks said in a post on X on Sunday, April 5.
In a tweet, NetBlocks said: “The internet outage in Iran is now the longest nationwide internet shutdown in history in any country, surpassing all other comparable incidents in severity, entering its 37th consecutive day at 864 hours.”
It reads: “Exactly five weeks ago, on Saturday, February 28, Iran cut off access to the global Internet. The measure remains in place, entering its 36th day after 840 hours, isolating the general public as authorities explore ways to allow select users access through a tiered whitelisting system.”
In a separate tweet, the monitor pointed out that some countries have experienced intermittent or regionally specific internet shutdowns for long periods of time, while North Korea has never been connected to the global internet at all.
“Iran is the first country to have an Internet connection and then lose it by reverting to the national network, while other countries, such as North Korea, skipped the connection phase and were isolated internationally for longer,” it said.
NetBlocks further added: “There have also been incidents of intermittent digital blackouts over a longer period of time, such as Myanmar, and those that have recovered after a few weeks, such as Sudan, and incidents at a sub-national level, such as Kashmir and Tigray.
“War damage to infrastructure in war-torn countries such as Ukraine and Gaza has also led to widespread connectivity cuts due to damaged infrastructure, leading to an observable drop in user numbers, although no war is known to send an entire country offline.
For the past five weeks, the US and Israel have been relentlessly attacking Iran with missiles and drone strikes. Tehran has also responded to the attacks by targeting Israel and US facilities in neighboring countries in the Persian Gulf. Since then, Tehran has experienced an internet blackout in the country.
While international connectivity and domestic services remain limited, authorities in Iran have also imposed controls on alternative access routes, including satellite connections and virtual private networks (VPNs), leaving citizens with limited or no reliable means of communication.
NetBlocks highlighted the human cost of internet blackouts during wartime and called on the authorities to remove the restrictions. “Due to restrictions on international connectivity and restrictions on domestic services, many families are unable to contact loved ones when needed most,” it said.
The outage comes with no clear signs of a de-escalation of the conflict, and there has been no formal response from the Iranian regime regarding the restoration of full internet access.
