Internet connectivity collapsed across Iran on Thursday amid nationwide protests, according to web monitoring firms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re at a near-total disconnection from the outside world now,\u201d Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity researcher who works for the nonprofit Miaan Group, told TechCrunch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at Kentik, a company that monitors internet traffic worldwide, concurred, telling TechCrunch that Iran\u2019s internet has been in \u201cnear-total blackout\u201d since around 11:30 a.m. on the U.S. east coast on Thursday, or 8 p.m. local time in Tehran.<\/p>\n Internet traffic monitor NetBlocks, internet infrastructure company Cloudflare<\/a>, and internet connectivity tracking site IODA<\/a>, all registered sudden drops in connectivity across Iran at the same time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe continue to see a small amount of traffic, but the country is effectively completely offline,\u201d David Belson, the head of data insight at Cloudflare, told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n At the end of December, protests erupted<\/a> in several cities in Iran, following a sharp drop in the value of the country\u2019s currency, prompting shortages of goods<\/a> and dramatic spikes in prices. Some shops in Tehran\u2019s traditional bazaar have been closed for 11 days, according to The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s government has responded by violently cracking down on the protesters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Iranian government, which maintains a tight control over the country\u2019s internet access, is behind the internet blackout, according to Rashidi.<\/p>\n Representatives for the Iranian government in the United States did not immediately respond to TechCrunch\u2019s request for comment. The Iranian Foreign Ministry\u2019s website was down at the time of publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/kentik-internet-traffic-iran.jpg?w=680\")