In a nutshell: Iran's internet outage has stretched past 1,000 hours, making it one of the longest nationwide network shutdowns recorded since global monitoring began. Data from NetBlocks and Cloudflare shows a country whose connectivity levels have collapsed to near zero, as jamming technologies digitally isolate tens of millions of people at once.
NetBlocks first tracked the disruption intensifying on February 28, the same day joint US and Israeli military strikes targeted sites in Iran. By April 11, the organization reported that traffic was stuck at about 1% of its pre-blackout levels. "The outage had exceeded 43 days and was still ongoing," the group posted.
Cloudflare Radar recorded the same collapse in real time: a 98% drop in HTTP traffic at 07:00 UTC on February 28, as data requests across Tehran, Fars, Isfahan, Razavi Khorasan, and Alborz disappeared simultaneously.
Although some limited data flows continue across whitelisted IPv4 routes, Cloudflare attributes those traces to government-approved access for certain domestic services. Iranian state media has said that all routing now goes through the National Information Network, an internal intranet initiative launched years ago as an alternative to the global web. That system allows only pre-approved sites to remain reachable, effectively cutting citizens off from all international platforms.
– NetBlocks (@netblocks) April 12, 2026
Attempts to bypass the blackout through satellite connectivity have failed. Starlink signals are reportedly being blocked by what one researcher described to IranWire as "military-grade jamming."
According to the Business and Human Rights Center, legislation passed this year makes the mere possession or operation of a Starlink terminal punishable by execution. Iranian authorities have been actively seeking out people who possess these devices.
Beyond the communications blockade, Iranian officials have issued explicit warnings against major US tech companies, threatening to attack infrastructure owned by OpenAI, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, and Google, and in one video vowing 'complete and utter annihilation' of a flagship OpenAI data center." The statements included references to satellite imagery of facilities, specifically hyperscale data centers in nearby regions.
Connectivity data shows that the current shutdown dwarfs those imposed earlier in the year. In January, protests against the regime triggered a temporary blackout costing the national economy roughly $35.7 million per day, according to Iranian Minister of Communications Sattar Hashemi. He said online sales fell by as much as 80% during that period, even after authorities began relaxing some restrictions later in January.
International rights groups say this new disruption crosses into the realm of humanitarian law. Human Rights Watch called it a "violation of fundamental rights," warning that people in the range of airstrikes were unable to access emergency updates. Amnesty International also marked the 1,000-hour threshold on April 10 with a public appeal to Iranian authorities to restore connectivity.
Iran's internet blackout passes 1,000 hours as connectivity drops to near zero
