- Iran went into a near-total internet blackout on February 28
- The blackout continues
- The Iranians have very limited solutions to circumvent restrictions
Iran has been plunged into a near-total internet blackout as regional conflicts escalate. The disturbances come barely a month after previous nationwide restrictions were lifted.
Data from internet watchdogs, including Cloudflare Radar and NetBlocks, show that widespread restrictions began on Saturday, February 28. The disturbances followed reports of military attacks in the region.
On March 2, the blackout has passed the 48-hour mark with no sign of recovery.
Almost all of Iran’s 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 disruptions, possibly caused by continued US/IL airstrikes…🧵 pic.twitter.com/1Kxk4t6HUMarch 2, 2026
Doug Madory, director of internet analytics at Kentik, confirmed that several networks have stopped exchanging traffic altogether.
He noted that – similar to the restrictions imposed on January 8 – “there is a small amount of traffic still passing through.” Signs of outages, potentially caused by airstrikes, continue to reduce connectivity.
While Pakinomist reported that a wave of cyber attacks has coincided with Saturday’s attack on Iran, some digital rights activists have suggested that the regime may be to blame for restricting access to the internet.
Iran has previously cut off online communications during times of political unrest. In addition to the shutdown imposed in January to crack down on widespread anti-government protests, authorities also restricted access to the Internet last June during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran.
Why standard VPNs fail during a total blackout
David Peterson, General Manager at Proton VPN, noted that this spike suggests Iranians are “trying to find international news sources about the US/Israel attacks” before the connection dropped.
Iran update 🇮🇷06:16 GMT this morning: sharp increase in @ProtonVPN traffic from Iran – probably from Iranians trying to find international news sources about the US/Israel attacks.07:06 GMT: To suppress information, Iran completely shuts down internet access again. pic.twitter.com/rlAOadQpe028 February 2026
Although VPNs are important tools for bypassing censorship, they need internet access to work.
For the same reason, VPN alternatives (Psiphon, Tor and Lantern) that are currently helping Iranians overcome unprecedented internet censorship are also not working.
Satellite internet connections like Starlink remain one of the very few solutions for navigating these types of shutdowns, but access among residents of Iran is limited.
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