Internet collapses in Iran amid protests over economic crisis

Internet connectivity collapsed across Iran on Thursday amid nationwide protests, according to web monitoring firms. 

“I think we’re at a near-total disconnection from the outside world now,” Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity researcher who works for the nonprofit Miaan Group, told TechCrunch. 

Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at Kentik, a company that monitors internet traffic worldwide, concurred, telling TechCrunch that Iran’s internet has been in “near-total blackout” since around 11:30 a.m. on the U.S. east coast on Thursday, or 8 p.m. local time in Tehran.

Internet traffic monitor NetBlocks, internet infrastructure company Cloudflare, and internet connectivity tracking site IODA, all registered sudden drops in connectivity across Iran at the same time.

“We continue to see a small amount of traffic, but the country is effectively completely offline,” David Belson, the head of data insight at Cloudflare, told TechCrunch.

At the end of December, protests erupted in several cities in Iran, following a sharp drop in the value of the country’s currency, prompting shortages of goods and dramatic spikes in prices. Some shops in Tehran’s traditional bazaar have been closed for 11 days, according to The New York Times.

Iran’s government has responded by violently cracking down on the protesters.  

The Iranian government, which maintains a tight control over the country’s internet access, is behind the internet blackout, according to Rashidi.

Representatives for the Iranian government in the United States did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. The Iranian Foreign Ministry’s website was down at the time of publication.