Internet Shutdowns

Local Impact

An Internet shutdown occurred in the Kurdistan Province of Iran from around 12:00 to 14:30 local time. Reports indicate this coincided with the Iranian President’s visit to the province.

It’s been over a year since the death of a young woman in police custody sparked protests across the country. Iranians in Kurdish cities have since faced periodic Internet disruptions, service blocking, and total shutdowns to ‘quell’ such protests or chances of protest.

As we repeatedly write about on Pulse, Internet shutdowns harm a country’s economy and society.

Data and Analysis

Measurements from the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) project at Georgia Tech show that the Internet in the Kurdistan Province was limited between 12:00 and 14:30 local time.

Line graph showing change in percentage of Internet connectivity for Kurdistan Province in Iran for 2 Nov 2023.

If we look at the Internet connectivity for Iran at this time we can see that this localized shutdown had minimal impact nationally.

Line graph showing change in percentage of Internet connectivity for Iran for 2 Nov 2023.
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