Iran Partially Restores Internet Access

Authorities in Iran partially restored internet access on May 27, 2026, three months after implementing a nationwide shutdown at the onset of conflict with the United States and Israel. This action follows a government announcement last week regarding the process to return internet access to pre-war levels, which were already restricted. The move ended over 2,000 hours of near-total internet blackout in the country of 90 million people, marking the longest nationwide shutdown globally.

Despite the partial restoration, significant restrictions persist for most users. Access to millions of web pages remains blocked, and global services and applications such as YouTube, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Waze are largely inaccessible. Connectivity for mobile, wireless, and landline services is slow and inconsistent. The ongoing limitations have led to a surge in demand for virtual private networks (VPNs) and other circumvention methods, creating a black market for internet access.

Iranian authorities continue to implement a multi-layered filtering architecture. Many data centers are not fully operational, and certain internet protocols like IPv6 and HTTP/3 are blocked, while UDP is actively disrupted. Foreign IP addresses are often placed in a restricted "grey" state, allowing limited traffic. This tiered access system, which offers varying degrees of internet access based on profession and state classification, has drawn criticism from reformist media and faces opposition from hardliners who advocate for continued internet restrictions.