Ongoing

National shutdown

Starting from the 12th day of widespread protest in the country, Internet traffic in Iran dropped to near zero around 20:00 local time (16:30UTC) on 8 January 2026. Many local websites became unreachable as well, including the websites of the main local news agencies.

The shutdown was implemented through cutting almost all connectivity to Iran. It is not clear if local services are still running and available.

Even though the service is not officially available in the country, IranWire reported that the Iranian government managed to interfere with Starlink service as well.

  • Total Duration 6 days, 19 hours

Flag of Iran Iran

Population
91,567,738

Freedom House rates Internet freedom as Not Free

View full country profile for Iran

Related documentation

In an interview with AlJazeera , Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of Iran, admitted that shutting down access to the Internet came following what he called terrorist attacks from 8 January. However, in the same interview he mentioned that the terrorist were arrested and the country now is calm and in peace, but the Internet is still cut as of 13 January.

Other supporting information

Data from Cloudflare Radar and IODA indicated traffic drops from 16:30UTC, following a short drop in IPv6 earlier in the day.

A graph from Cloudflare Radar indicating a shutdown in Iran with a small drop between 15:00 and 15:30UTC on January 8, followed by starting around 16:00 and reaching near zero traffic around 16:45UTC. .
A graph from Cloudflare Radar indicating a shutdown in Iran with a small drop between 15:00 and 15:30UTC on January 8, followed by starting around 16:00 and reaching near zero traffic around 16:45UTC. .
A graph from IODA showing a drop in Active Probing measurement in Iran starting around 16:30UTC on January 8, while the BGP measurement remained as usual.
A graph from IODA showing a drop in Active Probing measurement in Iran starting around 16:30UTC on January 8, while the BGP measurement remained as usual.

IODA and other researchers and news agencies started reporting on the instability of the Internet connectivity in the country in the days prior to the shutdown.

Iranians have experienced significant instability and disruption in Internet access since nation-wide protests started Dec 29. IODA's view of the Internet interference is most visible in Active Probing. Our Active Probing signal has shown abnormal drops Jan […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

[image or embed]

— IODA @ Georgia Tech (@ioda.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy) January 8, 2026 at 11:19 PM
USD $10,198,560

estimated negative impact on national economy

Netloss Calculator

Shutdown history

  • 2 shutdowns in the last 12 months
  • 17 shutdowns since 2018
  • 30,501 shutdown hours since 2018

View as a list

Related news