{"id":59003,"date":"2026-01-09T09:40:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/irans-internet-traffic-drops-to-near-zero-as-protests-intensify\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T09:40:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:40:25","slug":"irans-internet-traffic-drops-to-near-zero-as-protests-intensify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/irans-internet-traffic-drops-to-near-zero-as-protests-intensify\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Internet Traffic Drops to &#8216;Near Zero&#8217; as Protests Intensify"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<h4 color=\"#333\">In brief<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Internet traffic monitors say internet traffic in Iran fell to near zero Thursday evening and remains offline.<\/li>\n<li>The shutdown followed days of protests driven by economic grievances and calls for regime change.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s unclear whether satellites providing internet services like Starlink are accessible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Iran\u2019s internet traffic cratered on Thursday as authorities imposed a nationwide shutdown amid escalating protests calling for regime change, according to data from Cloudflare and independent monitoring groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCurrent internet usage in the region is basically non-existent,\u201d David Belson, head of data insight at Cloudflare, told <i>Decrypt<\/i>. Internet traffic in Iran \u201cdropped to near-zero as of 18:45 UTC (10:15 p.m. local time) and remains at that level,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The near-total blackout came as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/iran-protests-us-trump-threat-deaths-mount\/\" target=\"_blank\">protests<\/a> spread across Tehran and multiple major cities, with demonstrators calling for the overthrow of the Islamic government and clashing with security forces. Iranian authorities warned of a harsh response and blamed foreign actors for the unrest.<\/p>\n<p>The current wave of protests began in late December, driven by high inflation, a collapsing currency, and rising living costs.<\/p>\n<p>Demonstrations have intensified this week after calls for mass protests circulated online, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/iran-protests-possible-tipping-point-crown-prince-pahlavi-calls-for-mass-chant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appeals<\/a> from exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavifor.<\/p>\n<p>As crowds grew, authorities moved to restrict internet access, a step officials have described as a security measure to prevent unrest and limit coordination.<\/p>\n<p>Internet monitoring groups, including NetBlocks, also reported a sharp collapse in connectivity, describing the outage as a nationwide blackout that left the country almost completely offline.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLive network data show #Tehran and other parts of Iran are now entering a digital blackout, as internet connectivity falls on multiple providers,\u201d NetBlocks <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@netblocks\/115860547843638196\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external\">wrote<\/a> on Mastodon. \u201cThe new incident follows regional shutdowns, and is likely to severely limit coverage of events on the ground as protests spread.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Iran has repeatedly used internet shutdowns during periods of unrest to disrupt protest coordination and limit the flow of information to the outside world.<\/p>\n<p>Whether alternative connectivity services such as Starlink were accessible during the blackout\u2014as some social media users have <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Osint613\/status\/2009339869844447354?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external\">claimed <\/a>\u2014 remains unclear, and neither SpaceX nor its chief executive, Elon Musk, has confirmed that Starlink service was enabled in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>During a\u00a0<span>nationwide internet shutdown in Iran in June 2025, Musk publicly confirmed that Starlink had been\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uniladtech.com\/news\/elon-musk-activates-starlink-in-iran-after-millions-cut-off-571698-20250616\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external\">activated<\/a>, writing, \u201cthe beams are on,<\/span>\u201d after authorities cut access for an estimated 90 million people.<\/p>\n<p>Musk has also previously enabled Starlink in conflict zones, including over Ukraine following Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion, and again in Gaza in 2024 to support medical workers during Israel\u2019s war with Hamas.<\/p>\n<p>Independent data continues to show Iran remains almost entirely disconnected from the global internet.<\/p>\n<div>\n<h3>Generally Intelligent Newsletter<\/h3>\n<p>A weekly AI journey narrated by Gen, a generative AI model.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In brief Internet traffic monitors say internet traffic in Iran fell to near zero Thursday evening and remains offline. The [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":59004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tien-dien-tu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}