After 20-day outage, Iran internet flickers back but restrictions persist

Thousands of diaspora users have downloaded and run an application called Psiphon Conduit that allows them to securely share part of their bandwidth with the widely popular censorship circumvention tool Psiphon, helping users inside Iran maintain access to it.

By leaving unused phones or computers connected to home Wi-Fi networks and power, they have created small, fragile bridges that help keep Psiphon reachable from inside Iran.

In recent days, many Iranians who had been offline since the shutdown began January 8 have managed to contact relatives and friends via WhatsApp and Telegram or publish posts on social media after nearly two weeks of silence.

The closure coincided with two days of mass killings of protestors by security forces.

Psiphon

Much of the recent connectivity has been enabled by Psiphon Conduit, an application designed to function during severe censorship and shutdowns.

In recent days, many diaspora users with unlimited internet access have installed Psiphon Conduit and kept spare devices continuously connected. Inside Iran, users searching for a connection are automatically matched with these external helpers, allowing limited access to the global internet.

Each external user can enable access for roughly 25 people, albeit at low speeds.

The connection is considered relatively secure because traffic ultimately exits through Psiphon servers, meaning neither the Iranian user’s IP address nor the intermediary’s IP address is directly exposed.

According to Psiphon’s official website, Iran currently has more Psiphon users than any other country.

On January 22, more than half of the 2.8 million recorded Psiphon Conduit connection attempts originated from Iran. At the time of writing, more than 40,000 Iranian users were connected simultaneously, according to the site’s live data.

Other means, brief openings

Some users inside Iran report occasional success using the Tor Project’s Snowflake feature, Lantern’s unbounded mode, or WireGuard-based tools, though speeds are often extremely slow and unreliable.

Others say that, at times, unfiltered international internet access briefly becomes available on certain mobile operators in specific provinces. These short windows may be the result of technical glitches or testing of filtering methods, allowing users momentary passage through the state-imposed digital barrier.

The government has effectively sealed Iran’s internet by blocking international gateways and many VPN protocols. Under these conditions, traffic cannot normally leave the country, while limited domestic connectivity—such as banks, government services, and some content delivery networks—remains active.

Tools like Psiphon Conduit exploit narrow pathways that cannot be fully closed without disrupting the state’s own systems. They disguise encrypted traffic as ordinary web activity and route it through these small openings.

When shutdowns occur, users who already have the application installed do not need to download anything new; traffic begins flowing through whatever cracks remain.

This access, however, is far from comprehensive. Telegram or X may load sporadically, images and videos upload slowly, and connections frequently drop and reconnect.

Life online remains unstable

On Friday, Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said global internet access would be restored within 24 hours. Still, the closure continues.

Currently, the only access provided to users inside the country is to a highly unstable, filtered intranet, largely cut off from the global network.

Users say even domestic websites and government-linked platforms frequently disconnect, making basic tasks such as banking or administrative work difficult and at times impossible.

One user wrote on X: “Living without internet access, confined to a handful of domestic media outlets and news agencies and a few foreign satellite channels, is one of the darkest human experiences."

Others say that while they are relieved to have escaped two weeks of digital darkness, gaining access to information and videos withheld during that period has also caused profound distress.

Dark days, costly workarounds

Following the internet and phone shutdowns on January 8—and the violence of that day and the next—some Iranians traveled to border regions, used SIM cards from neighboring countries or left Iran entirely to regain connectivity and share footage with the outside world.

The first video showing large numbers of bodies at the Kahrizak forensic medicine center reportedly reached media outlets days later, filmed by someone who said they had traveled more than 1,000 kilometers to access the internet. Others shared limited information using Starlink, despite significant personal risks.

According to the monitoring site Filterban (Filter Watch), more than 300 hours of internet disruption pushed international connectivity into a black market. Proxies and configurations were reportedly sold at inflated prices—up to $15 for 10 GB of access which is a huge sum in Iran—amid widespread fraud.

Economic damage

For many, internet access is not optional. Hundreds of thousands of small and home-based businesses—from handicrafts and agricultural products to online language and music lessons —have been severely disrupted or effectively shut down.

Officials have yet to present a clear plan for restoring connectivity.

Mohammad-Jafar Ghaempanah, the president’s executive deputy, has said the government itself suffers losses from internet shutdowns, acknowledged that filtering fuels public dissatisfaction, and apologized for the disruption.

At the same time, hardline figures such as Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the Kayhan newspaper, continue to advocate for permanent use of the National Information Network— an intranet system designed to sever direct, universal access to the global internet.

The outlet reported that the assets include luxury properties across several European countries, ranging from a golf resort in Mallorca to a ski hotel in Austria.

The holdings were structured through a complex network of offshore companies registered in jurisdictions including Luxembourg, St Kitts and Nevis, as well as Austria, Germany and Spain.

Ansari is not under European Union sanctions.

The findings show how wealthy Iranians with close ties to the ruling system have continued to acquire high-value assets in the West despite sanctions.

The report comes as Iran has been shaken by widespread protests fueled by a collapsing currency, high inflation, and public anger over corruption. Protesters have accused elites of enriching themselves while living standards for much of the population have sharply deteriorated.

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Blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis estimates that Iran’s crypto ecosystem exceeded $7.78 billion in 2025.

Any figure attached to Iran’s crypto economy is of course partial: both the state and private users have powerful incentives to conceal activity, whether to limit sanctions exposure or avoid domestic scrutiny.

What is increasingly clear, however, is that the state now dominates a large share of that volume.

Chainalysis estimates that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps processed more than $3 billion in crypto transactions last year. Israel’s counter-terror financing authority has published a seizure order listing 187 crypto addresses worth roughly $1.5 billion in Tether, a crypto denomination pegged to the dollar.

New findings by the blockchain analytics and crypto-compliance firm Elliptic link Iran’s central bank to at least $507 million in purchases of dollar-pegged Tether (USDT).

That stockpile could supplement constrained foreign-exchange reserves and help authorities lean against sudden spikes in the rial’s parallel market.

In effect, USDT can function as an off-balance-sheet foreign-exchange buffer: accumulated outside correspondent banking channels, mobilized through intermediaries, and sold into rial markets via local exchanges and over-the-counter desks when pressure builds.

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Access, however, is not evenly distributed. Reports indicate state blessing for—or "whitelisting"—internet connectivity for certain traders, even as much of the country has endured a pervasive internet blackout since a deadly crackdown on protestors ramped up on Jan. 8.

When the rial comes under pressure, connectivity itself becomes an instrument of intervention: stablecoin-based market operations still require traders who can connect, quote prices, and settle transactions.

Alternate reality for households

Iran’s central bank has imposed limits on currency trading and transaction flows, while rolling out an anti-speculation tax regime covering gold, jewelry, foreign currency and cryptocurrencies.

The effect has been to raise the cost of traditional inflation hedges while signaling that policymakers now view household portfolio shifts as a macroeconomic risk.

The central bank has moved to cap individual crypto holdings at $10,000, despite warnings from Iranian traders and economists that such restrictions would choke savings and push activity further underground.

On the mining side, the divide is even starker. State-linked and religious institutions are among the largest players, in part because electricity tariffs in Iran are not uniform.

Iran International has reported repeated allegations of crypto mining at state-sponsored sites, including mosques, which benefit from reduced energy rates—an obvious advantage in an industry where profitability hinges on power costs.

The result is effectively two mining economies: small operators running rigs at home or in workshops, attempting to stay invisible, and state-linked actors with access to cheaper electricity, larger facilities, and more predictable protection.

Authorities have periodically blamed illegal neighborhood miners, but some experts see that focus as a way to deflect attention from deeper problems of grid management and governance.

Where the cheapest power is concentrated in privileged institutions and enforcement is uneven, the largest rents accrue not to households plugging in a single machine, but to organized actors with access.

Iran has become a cutting-edge battlefield of monetary adaptation. The central bank experiments with stablecoins to stabilize the rial, while households use the same rails to escape it.

A tightly capped, KYC-only micro-saver lane could offer households limited protection for modest savings while increasing transparency and helping isolate state-connected networks operating at scale.

The unresolved question is whether regulated crypto channels can be structured to distinguish household self-preservation from state-linked finance—or whether policy choices will continue to push both into the same shadows.

Whether the state and its beleaguered citizenry can defy mounting economic pressure may hang in the balance.

The non-profit Jewish Institute for National Security of America, founded in 1976, advocates for a strong US military relationship with Israel and researches conflict in the Middle East.

JINSA president and CEO Michael Makovsky and the group’s vice president for policy Blaise Misztal told Iran International’s English-language podcast Eye for Iran that decades of containment, deterrence and nuclear diplomacy have failed because the Islamic Republic itself should be destroyed.

“It should be US policy to seek the collapse of this regime,” Makovsky said.

They said hesitation now — after mass killings of protesters across Iran — risks emboldening Tehran at the theocracy's weakest moment.

“We don’t say regime change,” Makovsky said. “The regime will fall … only when the Iranian people bring it down. But it should be US policy … to seek the collapse of this regime.”

The last months, Misztal said, have created a rare strategic opening: Iran’s nuclear clock has been set back, its regional proxies weakened and Iranians themselves have returned to the streets demanding freedom.

“This is a moment like no other,” he said. “I don’t know when the stars will align like this again… why not make it now? When is a better time than now?”

The duo urged the Trump administration to abandon negotiations, intensify pressure on the Revolutionary Guards and build the infrastructure needed to help Iranians defeat the Islamic Republic.

Misztal said previous administrations focused on Iran’s nuclear program, terrorism sponsorship and ballistic missile development as separate threats without tying them back to what he called the ideological nature of the theocracy.

“Yes, it’s a problem that Iran is the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism. Yes, it is a problem that it’s pursuing nuclear weapons,” he said. “But all of that stems from it being the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Trump’s Promises and a Moment of Decision

Their warnings come as President Donald Trump faces rising scrutiny over his own rhetoric. Earlier this month, Trump vowed support for protesters and issued a direct warning to Tehran.

“I tell the Iranian leaders: You better not start shooting, because we’ll start shooting, too,” he said.

But Makovsky warned that after mass killings and widespread arrests, the absence of immediate consequences risks damaging US credibility.

“The Iranians have called his bluff for now,” he said. “If he doesn’t do it, it will go down as a tragic mistake.”

In recent days, Trump has said a US "armada" is heading toward the Middle East, with the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers expected to arrive in the region soon as Washington signals it is positioning military assets amid escalating uncertainty.

The growing tensions are now rippling far beyond Iran itself.

Major European airlines have begun suspending flights across parts of the Middle East, citing security concerns. Air France has canceled flights to Tel Aviv and Dubai, British Airways has halted evening service to Dubai and KLM has suspended routes to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Industry officials say cancellations are expected to increase gradually as carriers reassess airspace restrictions and passenger safety in a rapidly deteriorating regional environment.

A Cold War–Style Pressure Campaign

Misztal framed the strategy as a modern version of what the United States pursued against Soviet communism: strengthening civil resistance while weakening the ruling system from within.

“The strategy of regime collapse has been precisely what the United States pursued throughout the Cold War,” he said.

He argued that Washington should encourage defections, isolate elites in authority, cut off funding streams and expand opposition communications.

“One of the things we recommended is a quarantine of Iran’s oil exports,” Misztal said, “so that it doesn’t keep getting the money to rebuild its forces to pay the Basij or the IRGC.”

Both analysts warned that Iran’s leadership is entering what they described as its most dangerous phase, amid mass violence at home and the potential for war abraod.

“A showdown of some kind” is coming, Misztal said, and “the next showdown will be the last one."

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, along with several destroyers and warplanes, is set to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two US officials.

“We have a big force going toward Iran,” US President Donald Trump said on Thursday. “I’d rather not see anything happen, but we will see. We are watching them very closely. We have an armada, we have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it.”

The strike group has been en route from the Asia-Pacific region even as Trump has spoken publicly about talks following Iran’s violent crackdown on protests, which has left thousands dead.

The tone from parts of Iran’s military establishment has been notably defiant—and at times confident—prompting questions about whether some in Tehran see war as politically useful, a major event that could overshadow the mass killing of protesters.

“We are preparing for a fateful war with Israel. We possess weapons no one else has,” said Yahya Rahim Safavi, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

“The next war will end this conflict once and for all.”

Another senior commander, Ali Abdollahi, warned that any attack on Iran’s territory or interests would turn US interests, bases, and centers of influence into “legitimate and accessible targets.”

Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad Pakpour wrapped it up: Iran was prepared for any possibility, he said, “including an all-out war.”

Diplomatic messaging from Tehran has been more restrained but no less accusatory.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi again accused the United States of instigating unrest inside Iran. An all-out confrontation, he wrote, would be “messy, ferocious and far longer” than Israel or its allies anticipate.

Araghchi’s tone contrasted with Trump’s remarks earlier in the week, in which he said he had pulled back from a strike after Iran reportedly halted plans to execute hundreds of detainees.

“Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk,” the US president said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Hours later, aboard Air Force One, Trump reminded reporters that military action remained an option.

As ever, Trump appeared to be keeping his options open. In Tehran, however—perhaps mindful that Israeli strikes last June came amid US-Iran talks—officials appear to have drawn their own conclusions.