Iran plunged into an internet near-blackout during deepening conflict

Iran plunged into a near-total internet blackout Tuesday as Israel continued to bombard the country.

Two companies that track global internet connectivity, Kentinc and Netblocks, told NBC News that Iran’s internet connectivity plummeted around 5:30 p.m. local time, limiting Iranians’ ability to access and share information with the outside world as the country becomes more deeply involved in conflict.

The drop appears to be a result of a decision by Iran’s government, rather than Israeli strikes on infrastructure. Fatemeh Mohajerani, a spokesperson for Iran’s government, said it had restricted internet access in response to Israeli cyberattacks.

Iran’s government has historically shut down or reduced its internet connectivity with the outside world in times of civil unrest. Most recently, in 2019, it implemented a six-day full blackout as protesters took to the streets across the country and the government issued a crackdown on civilians, reportedly leading to the deaths of more than 100 people.

The country’s internet access has been reduced, but not fully blocked, in the aftermath of Israel’s strikes on Iran last week, which Iran has said killed at least 224 people. Israel said Iran’s retaliatory attacks have killed at least 24.

The internet slowdowns appeared to particularly affect services like virtual private networks used to access foreign sites.

Amir Rashidi, the director of digital rights and security at the Miaan Group, a nonprofit organization that advocates for human rights in Iran, told NBC News that some Western apps for communicating, including WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, had been blocked in the country.

A WhatsApp spokesperson told NBC News that its parent company, Meta, has been engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with Iran, which has been blocking internet providers used by the company.

Iran’s National Information Network, a nationwide network of government-approved sites that are not connected to the outside world, has largely remained accessible to people in Iran.

Data published Tuesday by the internet services company Cloudflare found that two major Iranian mobile network providers were effectively disconnected.

As internet services have been reduced in the country, some online have called for Elon Musk’s satellite internet service provider, Starlink, to step in.

Musk an wrote Friday on X, “The beams are on,” in response to a call for Starlink access for Iranians.

Iran has formally banned Starlink satellite internet terminals, and the country’s Saed News Agency has warned that the use of Starlink in the country could help direct Israeli attacks.

While Starlink does not formally have an option to operate within Iran’s borders, it does offer users a Global Roam option, marketed for international travel. Starlink’s parent company, SpaceX, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Holistic Resilience, a nonprofit group that advocates for information access in closed societies, said it estimates that 30,000 to 40,000 Starlink terminals are spread across Iran, based on network scans and conversations with people involved in selling them to people in the country.

Meanwhile, Iran’s National Cybersecurity Command announced that Israel had launched a broad cyberwarfare campaign against Iran’s digital infrastructure to disrupt services to the public, but it did not provide specifics of what was affected.

The Iranian news site Shargh Daily reported that Iran’s cyber police agency, FATA, said Tuesday that the government had imposed some internet disruptions after the cyberattacks and that service would be restored soon.

The statement came after a prominent pro-Israel hacker group that calls itself Predatory Sparrow claimed on X and Telegram, where it maintains a social media presence, to have conducted a destructive cyberattack against Bank Sepah, a national bank under U.S. sanctions for allegations of ties to Iran’s military.

Some Iranian ATMs were not functional Tuesday, a source on the ground said.

The members of Predatory Sparrow are unknown, and the group did not respond to a request for comment. It was not possible to determine whether the group is affiliated with any Israeli military or intelligence agency.

Bank Sepah did not respond to a request for comment.