Iran has started to resore internet access after three months of being cut off. The country’s first vicepresident, Mohammad Reza Aref in a post on X on Tuesday said “the first step toward free and regulated access to cyberspace has been taken.”
Internet monitoring groups, Netblocks and Kentik, reported partial restoration around 13:00 GMT, with Kentik warning that most networks were still down.
The Iranian government cut internet access following attacks by the US and Israeli beginning from February 28 this year. Government officials said the internet outage was aimed at preventing surveillance, espionage and cyber-attacks.
The decision marked one of the longest-running national internet shutdowns ever recorded worldwide. Speaking to BBC, a content creator from Tehran said he was able to connect to the internet using his home WiFi on Tuesday. “The main point is, some of my income will come back,” he said.
Netblocks said it was unclear whether the internet return would be sustained, and told the BBC it was consistent with what it had seen when previous blackouts were lifted – where restoration could take hours.
“Access is not universally back to its original state, with some regional variation,” said the global internet tracker’s research director, Isik Mater.
She added that there were signs of “more extensive filtering” than prior to January – when a similar blackout was imposed during the regime’s deadly crackdown on anti-government protests – “including additional restrictions to messaging apps like WhatsApp.
“This means families may still struggle to contact loved ones for the time being.” “Historically, each time internet access has been restored after an internet shutdown in Iran it has come back with heavier restrictions and tighter controls,” Mater said.
When the US and Iranian attacks started and internet access was cut off, Iran had only enjoyed full access to the outside world for only about a month following the January shutdown.
Some Iranians have sought to get around the restrictions using methods like expensive virtual private networks and smuggling satellite technology into the country
