By iranintl.com
Publication Date: 2026-05-25 12:22:00
After being offline for two months, Morteza finally managed to reconnect for a few minutes and message a group of old friends.
“Hi guys, do you know of a VPN that actually works?” he wrote. “My hearing aid account is blocked for me. I cannot update it.”
The message expressed something many Iranians have been trying to explain for months: The country’s internet crisis is no longer just about Instagram, Telegram or access to foreign news sites. The Internet is integrated into almost every aspect of daily life: from work and banking to transportation, education and healthcare.
Iran’s recent shutdown, which began on February 28 and continues in various forms, has become one of the longest nationwide internet disruptions in the world.
Even global technology companies are feeling the impact. Meta, the owner of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, recently reported that average daily users of its apps fell from 3.58 billion to 3.56 billion in the first quarter of the year…
