Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has issued an order to reopen international internet access, ending a near-90-day blackout that had cut Iranian citizens off from the global web during one of the country’s most turbulent periods in recent history. Iranian state media reported the decision on Monday, citing the head of public relations at Iran’s Communications Ministry, though the mechanism for how and when Iran would fully reconnect to the global web following the decision remained unclear. The restoration of connectivity was met with an outpouring of relief and emotion across social media platforms, with Iranians who had been isolated for months sharing messages that captured the weight of what the shutdown had meant for daily life, personal safety, and economic survival.
Authorities initially imposed an internet blackout from January 8, 2026, in a crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests, which the United States-based HRANA rights group said killed thousands. Connections were gradually restored in February, before a new blackout was initiated following the start of United States and Israeli strikes against Iran on February 28. The combined effect of both shutdown periods pushed the total duration of disruption to 88 days, a figure that Iranian editor Alireza Jafarzadeh marked on Instagram with the words: “The longest internet blackout in the history of the world has ended, greetings after 88 days.” Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Seyyid Sattar Hashemi stated that the Iranian people deserve free communication, a bright future, and a dynamic economy, adding that the president’s commitment to restoring internet access was a clear sign of rationality and standing with the people.
Prolonged shutdowns both restrict internet freedoms and hurt businesses that depend heavily on social media to operate, taking a toll on a fragile economy battered by the war and long-standing United States sanctions. Keyumars, an Iranian computer programmer who asked that only his first name be used due to security concerns, told Reuters that many people in Iran who ran businesses through Instagram and Telegram due to the high cost of renting a physical store lost everything during the blackout and had to start again from far below zero, carrying heavy debts, losses, and lost customers. The economic damage inflicted by the shutdown extended well beyond individual entrepreneurs, with sectors dependent on digital trade, remote work, and online payment processing all severely disrupted across the country.
Alp Toker, director of internet monitoring group NetBlocks, told Reuters that the process of restoration could take hours, days, or even weeks in some provinces, and that connectivity remained unstable, with platforms such as WhatsApp still inaccessible without a virtual private network. He noted that businesses were suffering, people were unable to get in touch with loved ones, and there was a sense of being left behind given how much had happened in the world during the 88-day period. Iranians themselves remained wary of what the restoration would mean in practice, with many noting that even in normal times, access to the internet in Iran is heavily restricted by government censorship of a wide range of websites and platforms.
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