Reut Yamen , and Zineb Riboua
Recent protests in Iran illustrate how control over digital infrastructure can be converted directly into control over society, and how this lesson is being closely observed by America’s adversaries. Since January 8, amid nationwide protests driven by economic collapse, inflation, and open calls for regime change, Iranian authorities have imposed one of the longest internet blackouts in the country’s history. Now entering its third week, the shutdown has plunged more than 92 million people into informational darkness, crippling communication, reporting, and basic services while concealing a violent crackdown that has killed thousands. By extinguishing visibility, the regime has shown how dominance over communications infrastructure can neutralize coordination and insulate repression from scrutiny. The blackout functions less as censorship than as an operational enabler, transforming digital control into a mechanism for managing society itself.
Digital Control as an Instrument of Regime Survival. The implications extend far beyond Iran. America’s adversaries are absorbing an important lesson: in modern conflicts between state and population, mastery of communications infrastructure can be as decisive as material force. Digital isolation compresses timelines and allows coercion to outpace accountability. Applied more broadly, this logic points toward the systematic use of advanced cyber and surveillance capabilities to penetrate encrypted channels, map opposition networks, and suppress resistance before it becomes politically visible, offering a replicable model for regime survival in an era of mass connectivity. At the same time, it would be strategically reckless to ignore the indispensable role these same capabilities play for the United States and its partners when used for security rather than control.
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