Internet security

Why Iran’s Internet Shutdown Is A Stark Warning For Russia

With escalating public protests over steep fuel price rises, Iran shut down its internet over the weekend to prevent images and videos leaking to the outside world, and to frustrate attempts by protesters to organise themselves. The move, which was described by NetBlocks as “one of the most complex ever tracked” and took a full 24 hours to put into effect, started on November 15. By the following evening “Iran’s largest mobile network operators including MCI, Rightel and IranCell subsequently fell offline.” A day later, internet connectivity was down at around 5%, with only the authorities and a few of the official news outlets maintaining connectivity.

Even for a country as restricted as Iran, with material limitations on the information accessible from inside its borders, this is extreme, “the most severe recorded in Iran since President Rouhani came to power, and the most severe disconnection tracked by NetBlocks in any country in terms of its technical complexity and breadth.” As reported by AFP, the Supreme National Security Council took the decision and used the ISNA news agency to indicate the shut down was only intended to last a day. While some reports continue to leak onto social media, the news flow has been stemmed.