Internet collapse in Iran amid protests over the economic crisis

Internet service collapsed across Iran on Thursday amid nationwide protests, according to internet monitoring companies.

“I think we are almost completely cut off from the outside world now,” Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity researcher who works at the nonprofit group Mian, told TechCrunch.

Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik, a company that monitors internet traffic around the world, agreed, telling TechCrunch that Iran’s internet had been in an “almost complete blackout” since around 11:30 a.m. on the US East Coast on Thursday, or 8 p.m. local time in Tehran.

Internet traffic monitoring company NetBlocks, Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare, and Internet connection tracking site IODA all recorded a sudden drop in connectivity across Iran at the same time.

“We’re still seeing a small amount of traffic, but the country is completely offline,” David Belson, head of data at Cloudflare, told TechCrunch.

At the end of December, protests broke out in several cities in Iran, following a sharp decline in the value of the country’s currency, leading to shortages of goods and a significant rise in prices. Some shops in Tehran’s traditional bazaar were closed for eleven days, according to the New York Times.

The Iranian government responded by violently suppressing the demonstrators.

According to Rashidi, the Iranian government, which imposes strict control on Internet access in the country, is behind the Internet shutdown.

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