Since its brief June war with Israel, Iran has throttled internet traffic and jammed GPS, making day-to-day tasks online almost impossible and prompting Iranians’ fears of greater surveillance.
Sanam Mahoozi and Erika Solomon
Throughout its 12 days of war with Israel in June, Iran enforced a near total internet blackout on its people, saying that it was a necessary security measure to stop Israeli infiltration.
Though the authorities have since technically lifted the blackout, internet activists, tech entrepreneurs and rights monitors say that a wartime chokehold on the web remains, leaving many Iranians still in the dark.
Digital rights experts say that internet speeds have been slowed, online traffic has been curtailed and geolocation positioning services, or GPS, is jammed. The use of satellite internet tools like Starlink, which could allow users to bypass such blocks, has been criminalized.
Many Iranians once used VPNs — virtual private networks — to circumvent restrictions. But those are increasingly difficult to reach in the country.Credit...Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
The partial shutdown has left Iranians struggling to communicate with one another and the outside world. Compounding Iran’s international isolation, the United Nations recently reimposed sanctions on its nuclear program.
The internet restrictions have had profound implications for ordinary Iranians. Since the war, simple tasks like finding directions, ordering a taxi or paying for groceries online have become an hourslong saga.
Abbas, a 71-year-old businessman, eventually gave up on his phone’s online directions as he tried to find a friend’s house in the city of Karaj.
“I kept driving in circles,” said Abbas, who asked to withhold his last name out of fear of reprisal for speaking to foreign media, adding that he was not alone in his frustration. “Everybody is lost.”
Officials from Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology did not respond to requests for comment on internet restrictions. But a June article by the news agency Tasnim, which is linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, said that “internet restrictions are necessary in wartime for defense against the enemy.”
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