- Iran entered a near-total internet blackout on February 28.
- The blackout continues
- The Iranians have very limited solutions to circumvent the restrictions.
Iran has been plunged into a near-total internet blackout as regional conflicts intensify. The disruptions come just a month after previous nationwide restrictions were lifted.
Data from internet watchdogs, including Cloudflare Radar and NetBlocks, shows that widespread restrictions began on Saturday, February 28. The disruptions followed reports of military attacks in the region.
As of March 2, the outage surpassed the 48-hour mark with no signs of recovery.
Almost the entire Iranian Internet has been down for more than 43 hours but, as was the case with last month’s shutdown, there is still a small amount of traffic passing through. Within the remaining traffic, we can see subsequent outages, possibly caused by continued US and Illinois airstrikes… 🧵 pic.twitter.com/1Kxk4t6HU8March 2, 2026
Doug Madory, director of Internet analytics at Kentik, confirmed that several networks have completely stopped exchanging traffic.
He noted that, similar to the restrictions imposed on January 8, “there is still a small amount of passing traffic.” Signs of outages, potentially caused by airstrikes, continue to reduce connectivity.
While PakGazette reported that a wave of cyberattack incidents coincided with Saturday’s attack on Iran, some digital rights activists have suggested that the regime may be to blame for restricting Internet access.
Iran has previously cut off online communications during times of political turmoil. In addition to the shutdown imposed in January to quell widespread anti-government protests, authorities also restricted internet access last June during the Twelve-Day War between Israel and Iran.
Why standard VPNs fail during a total blackout
David Peterson, CEO of Proton VPN, said this increase suggests Iranians were “trying to find international news sources about the US and Israeli attacks” before connectivity dropped.
Iran update 🇮🇷06:16 GMT this morning: sharp increase in @ProtonVPN traffic from Iran; It probably comes from Iranians trying to find international news sources about the US and Israeli attacks. 07:06 GMT: To suppress information, Iran once again completely cuts off Internet access. pic.twitter.com/rlAOadQpe0February 28, 2026
While VPNs are important tools for bypassing censorship, they require Internet access to work.
For the same reason, the VPN alternatives (Psiphon, Tor and Lantern) that currently help Iranians overcome unprecedented Internet censorship probably won’t work either.
Satellite internet connections like Starlink remain one of the few solutions to overcome these types of blackouts, but access among residents in Iran is limited.
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