On February 28, 2026, the day President Trump announced the start of “major combat operations” against the Islamic Republic, Iranian authorities cut all internet access, plunging Iran into what became an 88-day nationwide blackout—the longest in modern history. Regime officials publicly framed the shutdown as a national security imperative. In practice, it halted online commerce, severed the flow of information coming from international news outlets and social media, and cut off citizens from family and friends abroad. Decades of unreliable connectivity have left Iranians well-practiced in circumvention, finding ways to reach the outside world even as Tehran tries to cut them off. But as these tools have advanced, so have the countermeasures the regime deploys to keep its population offline.
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