Inside Iran’s new two-tier internet access, as blackout drags on
That control has now reached an unprecedented level. The current shutdown has lasted more than 60 days, making it the longest internet cut since Libya lost access for nearly six months during the Arab Spring.
It follows years of increasing control by the authorities after repeated unrest. Iran clamped down on communications during the Green Movement in 2009, the fuel price protests in 2019 and the demonstrations after the death of Mahsa Amini in custody in 2022.
This repression increased again after American strikes in June 2025, protests at the end of that year and a deadly crackdown in early 2026.
Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi told news channel Al Jazeera in January that the shutdown was a response to “terrorist operations” launched “from abroad”. The war declared by the United States and Israel on 28 February compounded the controls.
However, monitoring group NetBlocks noted in mid-April that regime figures and approved influencers were still posting freely on social media, while a population of 90 million people had effectively been silenced.
Alongside this unpublished whitelist, authorities have introduced a system known as “Internet Pro”. Tehran has not denied that selected users are being allowed online, but the number of people involved is not known.
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Whitelist access
Internet Pro is a paid service with several levels of priority, offering faster and more stable connections to those who qualify. Both the paid system and the whitelist amount to a selection of users, allowing some to access the web.
The system relies on tight control of internet traffic across the country. Access can be cut on one side of a street and maintained on the other, or limited to specific categories of users.
“Very often, this strategy is applied at an economic level: if you pay more, you get a higher speed and access to services others do not have,” Kavé Salamatian, a computer science professor at Université Savoie Mont-Blanc and a specialist in Iran, told RFI.
“Doing this at the scale of a country, and not at the scale of a company or a single operator, is more or less new. The main question is how the Iranian regime can implement it. The authorities have put in place a very precise system to control internet traffic.”
Applicants for Internet Pro must present identity documents, as well as proof of their profession or recommendations. Business leaders, shopkeepers, doctors, academics and teachers are among those eligible.
The Iranian news agency ISNA, which is partially funded by the government, described the system as “an expert solution that offers a stable connection for professional activities”.
Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani confirmed the policy during a press conference in March, saying: "Measures have been put in place to give more resources to people who can make our voice heard more widely."
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Economic cost
Along with Pakistan, Russia and Myanmar, Iran imposes strict limits on internet access in the name of regime survival. In these states, a two-speed internet has been common for years, and IP addresses are often closely monitored.
But such control comes at a cost. Restricting access may reduce what authorities see as security risks, but it also weakens the digital economy, which depends on open internet access.
NetBlocks estimates financial losses from the shutdown at $37 million per day. Around 10 million Iranians are directly or indirectly affected in terms of their income.
“The question of censorship in the country has for a very long time been controversial for economic reasons and economic arguments,” said Salamatian. “It is a political issue.”
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Bombing outages
In January, French legal think tank Le Club des Juristes said Iran had relied on its highly centralised network and strict control over domestic providers to enforce these restrictions.
Most Iranians now rely on the National Information Network, or NIN, a tightly controlled domestic network that has been in development for more than 15 years. Using a VPN or satellite services such as Starlink remains extremely risky.
“Once the competent authorities have declared the situation normal, the internet situation will also change,” government spokesperson Mohajerani said, adding that the government viewed internet access as a civic right and was listening to public demands.
Salamatian added that, in addition to the government measures, some internet outages are linked directly to the war. “It is important to remember that, for the three months Iranians have been at war, some of the outages are attributable to the bombing."
At the same time, he said, the conflict has allowed authorities to make security their top priority and tighten control over dissent. However, he expressed scepticism that such controls can last, saying the strategy could "work over a short period, but not over the long term”.
He added: “The Chinese built the Great Wall in the third century. A Chinese thinker said that no wall will ever be higher than people's desire to cross it. That means every wall you build is destined to be bypassed.”
This article has been adapted from the original version in French by Anne Bernas.