After 88 days of the longest nationwide internet blackout in modern history, Iran’s government restored connectivity May 26. The roughly 90 million Iranians coming back online are now learning the full scope of what their government did while the lights were out.
The restoration is partial and fragile. NetBlocks confirmed connectivity had reached only 40 percent of pre-shutdown levels, with WhatsApp blocked and YouTube and Instagram heavily filtered. An Iranian administrative court moved to suspend the legal order establishing the cyberspace body that voted to restore access. Many Iranians said they assumed the regime would find a reason to cut it again.
The January crackdown that triggered the blackout killed thousands. Amnesty International documented at least 28 protesters and bystanders dead between December 31 and January 3 alone, across 13 cities in eight provinces. Norway-based Iran Human Rights put the potential final death toll above 25,000. On May 28, Amnesty released a new report documenting more than 6,000 arbitrary arrests since February 28 — journalists, lawyers, students, and human rights defenders — carried out under what the regime called wartime conditions.
The wartime conditions were real. On February 28, the United States and Israel launched joint strikes targeting military and governmental sites. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, 86, was killed, along with the Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, the Defense Minister, the IRGC Ground Forces Commander, and the Supreme Leader’s senior security advisor. IranWire described it as an almost complete decapitation of Iran’s military leadership.
The regime did not fall. The Assembly of Experts named Mojtaba Khamenei, the dead leader’s 56-year-old son, as the new Supreme Leader. Foreign Affairs described the choice as made out of necessity, driven partly by Trump’s stated desire to influence the succession — which made Mojtaba the defiant option and the only viable pick for a regime signaling it would not be dictated to by Washington. Analysts described him as harder line than his father.
More than six weeks after his appointment, Iranians had still not seen Mojtaba in public. CNN reported the regime was using AI-generated videos to show him delivering messages, fueling speculation he was incapacitated or abroad. A new hard-line IRGC commander filled the vacuum, publicly criticizing the civilian leadership for negotiating with Iran’s attackers.
The ceasefire declared April 8 is what brought the internet back. NPR reported the decision to restore connectivity came as negotiators closed in on a permanent truce — making access a diplomatic concession, not a rights acknowledgment.
Iranians reconnecting this week said relief was impossible given what the blackout cost. “I am not happy that the internet has been restored, because 40,000 other people will never come online again,” one viewer told Iran International May 26. The economic damage ran to $35.7 million per day by the government’s own admission, with total losses estimated at $1.8 billion. Thousands lost their livelihoods. Families went months without contact with relatives abroad.
The shutdown was imposed to hide a crackdown. The crackdown is now documented. And the underlying conditions that drove Iranians into the streets in December 2025 — inflation, currency collapse, economic crisis — remain unchanged.
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