By 
For decades, Iran has remained a site of conflict, characterized by tensions between the nation and the state as well as disputes with the USA (United States of America) and other Western countries. Within these conflicts, ‘Internet connection’ emerged as a central point of contention. The Iranian regime framed free access to the internet as a national threat, citing ‘enemy’ conspiracies both inside and outside the country aimed at toppling the state; conversely, Iranian citizens envisioned ‘connection’ as a fundamental tool for dissidence and resistance against suppression, while US companies served as providers of the platforms.
When these internal and international tensions escalated to unprecedented levels in January 2026, the regime adopted a policy of total disconnection. In this blog, the author explains how the concept of ‘connection’ was negotiated within these domestic and global dynamics.
Photo Credit: Bliss Team
From the connected to disconnected Iran
The catastrophic collapse of the Iranian Rial, coupled with soaring inflation, triggered immediate frustration among the working class and traditional shopkeepers in the Grand Bazaar.
Within days, the uprising spread from Tehran to less privileged cities across Iran. Compelling videos and images of the protests streamed across social media. In one instance, impoverished residents in Abdanan entered a semi-public chain store and, rather than looting food, scattered rice over their heads to symbolize a quest for dignity over basic survival. Similarly, young protesters recorded poignant messages, stating, ‘If we are not there on the day of victory, please remember us and celebrate happily,’ anticipating the severe repression that would meet their peaceful demonstrations.
A call from the exiled crown prince also prompted many Iranians in numerous cities to join the movement. Meanwhile, the Trump administration warned the regime against killing protesters, stating that its ‘gun is prepared and fully loaded,’ and former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted an allusion to the role of Israeli intelligence in the protests. When ten days of targeted throttling and localized cuts failed to quell the unrest, the regime implemented a systematic blackout on January 8 to mask a massive escalation in state violence. This moment served as a stark reminder of how the concept of a ‘free global internet’ is often overshadowed by the pursuit of ‘national digital sovereignty.’
Furthermore, geopolitical resentment toward US and Israeli actions deterred many leftists from acknowledging the protests’ genuine character: a struggle by unarmed citizens against decades of domestic colonization. Consequently, the media narrative surrounding these events was dominated by outlets with right-wing leanings.
Starlink like a hole inside walls
During the darkness of the total blackout, Starlink terminals were utilized within Iran to breach the digital isolation – an opportunity afforded to Iranians by the power dynamics between the regime and the US. In response, the Iranian military deployed mobile jammers to disrupt satellite signals, demonstrating a new level of technical sophistication in their censorship efforts. Through these Starlink connections, a limited number of videos were propagated, depicting thousands of protesters – a scale far exceeding the demonstrations of recent decades – alongside grim images of mass casualties in morgues. These connections also carried the voices of witnesses who testified to how regime forces shot indiscriminately at citizens, regardless of social class, region, gender or ideology. Cut off from their families and friends back home, the vast Iranian diaspora – numbering between 5 and 10 million – stepped in as gatekeepers. They organized worldwide demonstrations and worked tirelessly to ensure the world witnessed the state violence by sharing videos of the protests, the faces of the victims and their individual stories.
International calls
On 13 January 2026, mobile operators briefly restored international calling capabilities in Iran. These first calls from within the country were historic, occurring in an atmosphere described as apocalyptic. Constrained by the exorbitant cost of international rates and the threat of state surveillance, callers delivered brief, urgent messages devoid of detail: ‘They killed so many more than you could ever imagine!’. Members of the diaspora shared these conversations with exiled media outlets, such as Iran International and BBC Persian, providing firsthand testimony from inside the country. These narrow pipelines of connection allowed international agencies to begin fact-checking the scale of the state violence. Facing mounting global pressure, the Iranian government eventually published a list naming 3,117 victims; however, this figure stood in stark contrast to reports from the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which claimed 6,842 deaths, and estimates from the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, which ranged from 5,000 to as high as 20,000.
Reconnection
As intermittent internet connectivity was gradually restored, VPNs enabled those within Iran to send messages, albeit in a restricted capacity. Furthermore, innovations such as Snowflake – a plug-in for the Tor Project – allowed volunteers worldwide to turn their computers into temporary ‘bridges.’ By disguising Iranian users’ traffic as regular WebRTC calls (resembling video chats), these bridges forwarded data to the open internet, facilitating the sharing of numerous protest videos with international audiences.
However, these emerging visuals were disseminated against a backdrop of competing, reductionist narratives: international observers often framed the situation through the lens of a potential geopolitical deal or war between the regime and the US; some diasporic opposition groups used exiled media to represent the unrest as evidence of their own domestic support; and state media depicted the uprising as a terrorist coup orchestrated by Israel and the US In response, Iranian citizens used their restricted connection to counter these misrepresentations through unprecedented embodied actions.
At funerals, families invited crowds to clap, dance, and trill rather than engage in traditional mourning, reframing grief as an epic struggle and transforming humiliation into pride and frustration into collective action. During these events, parents of the victims publicly declared their pride in their children’s sacrifice for a free Iran.
Ultimately, the internet in Iran remains a site where the ideal of global connection and the pursuit of national digital sovereignty clash. While the regime employs increasingly sophisticated strategies of censorship and surveillance, Iranians trapped within the walls of isolation continue to build volatile transnational ties, challenging the narratives that seek to oversimplify their struggle.
Opinions expressed in Bliss posts solely reflect the views of the author of the post in question
To the memory of Somayeh Ghobadi– a single mother who bore the weight of economic hardship with quiet resilience, and whose life was taken by state forces before she was granted the simple, final mercy of holding her daughter one last time.
Are you looking for more content about Global Development and Social Justice? Subscribe to Bliss, the official blog of the International Institute of Social Studies, and stay updated about interesting topics our researchers are working on.
Peter van Bergeijk (
