Iran International
Iran’s new “Internet Pro” rollout may tighten state control in the short term, but experts who spoke to Iran International question whether the Islamic Republic can sustain a class-based internet in one of the Middle East’s most connected societies.
Tens of millions of Iranians have been cut off from the rest of the globe since US-Israeli strikes began on Feb. 28. It has been described as the world’s longest state-imposed internet blackout to date.
Under the new plan, approved by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, selected businesses and institutions would regain global internet access while much of the public remains restricted.
The rollout would begin with commercial card holders and later expand to sectors tied to production, industry and trade, according to officials, who present the measure as economic management.
Critics see something larger: the formalization of a two-tier digital system. Those fears have intensified after leaked material circulated in recent days suggested authorities were considering more permanent restrictions.
Iran International has not independently verified the documents.
‘War as excuse’
Neda Bolourchi, executive director of the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans, said the announcement appears less like an emergency wartime measure than the rollout of a long-prepared policy.
“What we can understand is that this has been a multi-year project,” she told Iran International. “That the war has given it the excuse to roll it out.”
She added that she does not expect a quick return even to the limited internet environment that existed before the latest shutdowns.
But Amin Sabeti, the London-based founder of CERTFA, a cybersecurity lab focused on cyberattacks linked to Iran, questioned whether Tehran could maintain such a model for long.
“They are trying to implement it, but the big question mark for me is how long they can carry on,” he told Iran International. “I don’t think they can continue the next six months as it is.”
Sabeti argued that wartime conditions may allow governments to impose extraordinary restrictions, but Iran is not North Korea and cannot easily be transformed into one.”
‘The Gen Z problem’
The economic consequences are already mounting.
For millions of Iranians, Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp are not luxuries. They are storefronts, classrooms, advertising platforms and lifelines to clients abroad.
Bolourchi warned that while the model may be sustainable for the state, it could be punishing for ordinary households, many of whom make their living online.
Sabeti noted that this would carry political risks for the ruling elite.
“If you offer it to the Iranian people—internet, Instagram, XYZ—and suddenly you want to take it away, that’s the level of the anger. We will see huge protests,” Sabeti said.
Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute who focuses on Iranian society, Gen Z and social media, said the blackout cannot be separated from the Islamic Republic’s broader information war.
“The reason they are basically not allowing Iranians access to the outside world is because the internet and social media is the only way for their voices to be heard,” Dagres said.
She also stressed that the economic damage has been particularly severe for entrepreneurs, women-led businesses and rural sellers who depend on social media income streams.
Tightening control
The system may also deepen surveillance.
Even if Iran does not become a replica of North Korea, a permission-based internet would still mean more monitoring and greater pressure on citizens to censor themselves.
Dagres argued that the government may be trying to normalize the blackout through small concessions while preserving overall control.
Direct-to-cell technology, which could one day allow ordinary smartphones to connect directly to satellites without dishes or ground terminals, is still not meaningfully available in Iran and remains more promise than practical solution.
For Tehran, “Internet Pro” may solve one immediate problem: how to keep strategic sectors online while limiting the wider public. In doing so, it may create another.
Iran is a country where tens of millions have built livelihoods, relationships and daily routines online. Restricting that access while rewarding approved groups may tighten control today, but deepen resentment tomorrow.
It said Farid headed a non-military defense management committee at one of the country’s sensitive organizations, without naming it, and had shared information including organizational structures, security arrangements and infrastructure.
Rights groups had earlier said Farid was arrested in 2023 and had been working at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. They said he was first held in Tehran’s Greater Tehran prison before being transferred to Evin prison.
Iran Human Rights had reported last year that he was “initially sentenced to 10 years in prison” and, after a retrial, “sentenced to death on charges of spying for Israel.”
The judiciary said Farid had connected internal servers to infected files on instructions from a Mossad officer and enabled outside access to systems using USB devices.
It added that Farid confessed during the case process to transferring information and had been promised payment and help to leave the country.
Rights groups have raised concerns about the use of forced confessions and due process in Iran.
Atomic-linked executions
Iran has carried out several executions in recent months in cases tied to its nuclear sector and alleged links to Israel.
In October, rights group Hengaw said Iran executed Javad Naeimi, described as a nuclear engineer working at the Natanz facility, after convicting him of spying for Israel.
The group said he was hanged in Qom Central Prison and that the execution was carried out in secrecy. Iranian state media reported the execution of a man on espionage charges at the time but did not identify him.
Hengaw said Naeimi had been arrested in February 2024 and sentenced to death after what it described as an opaque judicial process, adding that he was subjected to torture and coerced confessions during interrogation.
In August, Iran executed nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi on similar charges. The judiciary said he had been recruited by Mossad and transferred classified information.
A relative told Iran International that Vadi confessed only after severe torture and threats against his mother, and said the case relied on a televised confession. Rights groups have long raised concerns about the use of forced confessions in such cases.
Following heightened tensions with Israel and the US, Iranian authorities have stepped up arrests, trials and executions in espionage cases, drawing criticism from rights groups and UN experts over due process.
"I want this account recorded so that if I live, I can testify in any court, and if I do not, this narrative tells part of the crime that happened in those two nights in Mashhad... Our war with the Islamic Republic continues in the streets. I estimate my chances of staying alive in the coming days at about 20 percent."
These were the last words the young man shared with Iran International before he went missing a few days after the January massacre. There has been no news of his fate for more than eight weeks while the Iranian government continues to cut internet and phone lines.
Witness accounts and reports reaching Iran International describe a coordinated massacre in the city on January 8 and 9, as security forces used a communications blackout to open fire on crowds with live ammunition.
Snipers on rooftops
On Tabarsi Street in Mashhad, members of the Revolutionary Guard took positions on rooftops starting at 9 p.m. Witnesses said they fired directly into the crowds. Plainclothes agents moved through the smoke of tear gas to kill protesters with handguns.
"From 10 p.m. onwards, the number of dead bodies lying on the ground was so high that the smell of blood was clearly felt in the air," one witness told Iran International. He added that security forces attacked an ambulance at midnight and killed or wounded protesters with "finish-off" shots.
Mass burials in secret
At Behesht-e Rezvan cemetery in Mashhad, a source familiar with the matter said the head of the facility reported that more than 400 bodies arrived on the night of January 9. Many could not be identified because they were shot in the face and neck.
Reports indicate that authorities carried out mass burials. The source who was present at the cemetery told Iran International that about 400 people were buried together in a single instance because their faces were unrecognizable from gunshot wounds.
Orders to spread fear
A source within the Khorasan Razavi Governor’s Office told Iran International that provincial leaders met on the morning of January 9. The instruction from higher authorities was to suppress the protests at any cost.
"It was stated that it does not matter how many are killed: 'Just scare the people in such a way that on January 10, no one dares to come to the street and protest,'" the source said.
Firefighters killed for helping
The crackdown also hit emergency workers. Firefighters in Mashhad were ordered by the municipality to participate in the suppression, but many refused and helped the protesters instead.
Hamid Mahdavi, a firefighter and athlete, was shot and killed while helping protesters. Other firefighters who refused the orders have been arrested.
At Farabi Hospital in Mashhad, a nurse said staff issued 500 death certificates between midnight and 7 a.m. on January 10.
In the courtyard of the Chamran clinic, a woman searching for her husband described seeing bodies in black covers stacked in three rows. She said a large trailer arrived and workers with covered faces began throwing more bodies from the vehicle onto the courtyard floor.
The Iranian government has maintained an internet and phone blackout for more than eight weeks. Iran International reports that the Islamic Republic killed more than 36,500 protesters across Iran during the two nights of Jan. 8 and 9.
Judiciary-affiliated media identified the man as Amirali Mirjafari and said his death sentence had been upheld by the Supreme Court before being carried out early on Tuesday.
State media said Mirjafari had set fire to the Gholhak Grand Mosque in Tehran and acted as a leader of a network accused of links to Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, framing the case as part of efforts against foreign-backed activity.
Authorities said he had confessed after his arrest to taking part in protests in January, damaging public property, including phone booths and buses, and setting fire to motorcycles using gasoline-filled bottles.
Amnesty and other rights groups have repeatedly said Iranian courts rely on confessions obtained under duress in such cases.
Iran has used broad security charges to prosecute people detained during the January protests, which followed a new wave of anti-government demonstrations and a widening crackdown by authorities that became one of the most extensive in recent years.
Tehran has not released official nationwide arrest figures, but Iran International reported earlier this year that the number exceeds 36,500, based on internal security briefings the channel obtained and reviewed.
Earlier this month, Iran executed 18-year-old Amirhossein Hatami, who had been convicted in the same case linked to the nationwide anti-government protests that the Islamic Republic repressed in what became its broadest crackdown to date.
In a recent report, Amnesty International said 11 men were at risk of imminent execution over participation in the protests. The rights group said they had been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention before being convicted in grossly unfair trials based on forced confessions.