Iran's internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only

Summary

Iran’s near-total communications blackout has entered its 16th day, but that’s just a live test. Following a repressive crackdown on protests, the government is now building a system that grants web access only to security-vetted elites, while locking 90 million citizens inside an intranet. Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani confirmed international access will not be restored until at least late March. Filterwatch, which monitors Iranian internet censorship from Texas, cited government sources, including Mohajerani, saying access will “never return to its previous form.” This is what makes Iran’s attempt unique: Other authoritarian states built walls before their populations went online. Iran is trying to seal off a connected economy already in freefall. The system is called Barracks Internet, according to confidential planning documents obtained by Filterwatch. Under this architecture, access to the global web will be granted only through a strict security whitelist. An armed member of the Iranian security forces in front of a burning building during a protest in Tehran, Iran, on January 9, 2026. Getty Images “The regime is terrified of one thing: Iranians being heard telling their own truth and having crimes documented,” Mahsa Alimardani, a digital rights researcher at U.S.-based Witness, which trains activists to use video for advocacy, told Rest of World. “The question becomes: How do we give Iranians an unbreakable voice?” The idea of tiered internet access is not new in Iran. Since at least 2013, the regime has quietly issued “white SIM cards,” giving unrestricted global internet access to approximately 16,000 people. The system gained public attention in November 2025 when X’s location feature revealed that certain accounts, including the communications minister, were connecting directly from inside Iran, despite X being blocked since 2009. What is different now is scale and permanence. The current blackout tests infrastructure designed to make two-ti...