As reported in the June Network Monitor, Iran’s Telecommunication Infrastructure Company (TIC) activated SafeSearch on Google for all Iranians instead of the regular Google search engine. Google SafeSearch is a feature designed, in part, for children that excludes explicit content.

On July 20, in response to a reporter’s question on why they activated SafeSearch for citizens, Minister of ICT Issa Zarepour claimed that, “The activation of SafeSearch on search engines is the demand of Iranian families.” However, he did not provide any information regarding how and when Iranian families requested Safe Search.

By the end of July, SafeSearch was enforced on all search engines, including Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing and Yandex. Interestingly, Yandex was blocked for years but recently unblocked after Zarepour’s visit to Russia in late July.

On July 25, a power outage at the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company (TIC)’s LCT (Large Capacity Tandem) building, caused an internet outage in several provinces by various  providers. The LCT building is responsible for distributing the internet among Iran’s internet providers and other companies. Earlier this year in March, electric issues led to a fire in the very same building.

The fact that these electric issues are recurring and TIC fails to secure power for such a strategic building demonstrates a clear sign of mismanagement at TIC.  Iran’s internet, which is centralized by design, is quite vulnerable by nature meaning that any technical issue or cyber attack could put the entire country’s network access at risk.

Based on data collected this month, several major internet outages occurred across the provinces of Kerman, Fars, Hormozgan, and Hamadan. Users in these provinces experienced prolonged outages lasting several days. Iranians in almost all provinces experienced one or more outages on July 25 due to the TIC power outage. No outages were reported for ChaharMahal and Bakhtiari province, or North Khorasan.

Timeline of Regional Disruptions

NOTE:  In some cases the available data allows Filterwatch to determine if the disruption is a type of shutdown of access or throttling (i.e., a dramatic slowing of connection speeds). In other cases we can just observe a disruption or outage of some kind without more specificity. Overall, our existing tools are not always able to accurately identify and fully examine the nature and scale of disruptions to Iran’s domestic internet connections. 

Timeline of internet shutdowns, throttling, and disruptions based on regions and cities.

• July 1: A brief outage occurred in the provinces of Hormozgan, Kerman, Bushehr, Yazd, Tehran, Kohgiluyeh & Buyer Ahmad, Ilam, and Kordestan.

• July 2: A brief outage occurred in Qazvin, Sistan & Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Alborz, and North Khorasan

• July 3: Kordestan a drop in BGP.

• July 3-4: Golestan experienced diminished BGP levels from the afternoon of July 3, lasting into the early morning of July 4.

• July 4-25: A prolonged outage occurred in Kerman province.

• July 4-5: Zanjan province experienced an outage lasting from late night July 4 into early July 5.

• July 6-25: A prolonged outage occurred in the province of Hamadan.

• July 8: A brief outage occurred in Hormozgan, Bushehr, Yazd, and Kohgiluyeh & Buyer Ahmad.

• July 9-16: A prolonged dip in BGP signals in the province of Hormozgan.

• July 10: Brief internet outage in the province of Qazvin.

• July 11: Two outages occurred in Sistan & Baluchestan, and one outage in Qazvin.

• July 12: A brief outage occurred in Qazvin.

• July 13: A brief outage occurred in South Khorasan with brief outages in Ilam, Esfahan, Lorestan, and Qom.

• July 14: A brief outage occurred in Sistan & Baluchestan, and Esfahan.

• July 15: A brief outage occurred in Sistan & Baluchestan, Esfahan, and Lorestan.

• July 15-16: An outage occurred in Kohgiluyeh & Buyer Ahmad, and Yazd from the late night into early morning.

• July 16: Three brief outages occurred in Sistan & Baluchestan between 8 and 17:00. A brief outage occurred in Esfahan, Ilam, Zanjan, East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardebil, Razavi Khoresan, and Tehran.

 

• July 16-17: Outage in Fars and Kohgiluyeh & Buyer Ahmad provinces. Both occurred between late night and early morning.

• July 17: A brief outage occurred in Kordestan, and West Azerbaijan.

• July 18: A brief outage occurred in the provinces of Khuzestan, and West Azerbaijan.

• July 19: Two brief outages occurred in South Khorasan, and Sistan & Baluchestan provinces.

• July 21: Brief internet outage in the provinces of South Khorasan, and Fars.

• July 23: A brief outage occurred in Khuzestan, and Fars provinces.

• July 24: A brief outage occurred in QomJuly 25: Brief outages occurred in Semnan, Mazandaran, Esfahan, Kohgiluyeh & Buyer Ahmad, Khuzestan, Markazi, Qazvin, Gilan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Kordestan, East Azerbaijan, and Razavi Khorasan provinces. Two brief outages occurred in Alborz, Ardebil, East Azerbaijan, and West Azerbaijan. Three brief outages occurred in Zanjan.
• July 25-26: Two outages occurred in Bushehr province.
• July 25-29: A prolonged outage occurred in Fars province.
• July 26: A brief outage occurred in Lorestan province.
• July 29: A brief outage occurred in Hormozgan, Bushehr, Yazd, Mazandaran, Tehran, Esfahan, Kohgiluyeh & Buyer Ahmad, Ilam, East Azerbaijan, and Golestan provinces.
• July 30: A brief outage occurred in Sistan & Baluchestan, and Tehran.
• July 31: A brief outage occurred in Sistan & Baluchestan, Esfahan, Ilam, Golestan, Gilan, Zanjan, and Hamadan.
• Below are disruptions by regions aggregated at the month level.

 Provider Outages

• AS41881 of Favana Group. This outage affected users in the province of Tehran.

• AS202391 of Cooperative Afra ertebatat-e-sabet-e Rasa Co. This outage affected users in Fars, Tehran, Golestan, and Razavi Khorasan provinces.

• AS56466 of Pars Fonoun Ofogh Information Technology and Communications Company LTD. This outage affected users in the provinces of Hamadan, and Tehran.

• AS42337 of Respina Networks & Beyond PJSC. This outage affected users in East Azerbaijan, Kordestan, Kermanshah, Khuzestan, Kohgiluyeh & Buyer Ahmad, Fars, Esfahan, Semnan, Mazandaran, Alborz, Qazvin, and Kerman provinces.

• AS48309 of Ariana Gostar Spadana (PJSC). This outage affected users in Tehran, Esfahan, and Bushehr provinces.

• AS207141 of Ertebat Gostare Nakhl Jonoob Company PJSC. This outage affected users in Kerman province.

• AS44208 of Farahoosh Dena PLC. This outage affected users in Tehran, Fars, Bushehr, and Kohgiluyeh & Buyer Amad provinces.
• AS6736 of Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences. This outage affected users in Tehran province.

• AS56503 of PJSC Badr Rayan Jonoob. This outage affected users in Tehran, and Khuzestan provinces.

• AS60627 of Rayankadeh Apadana Company Ltd. This outage affected users in the provinces of Tehran, and Markazi.

• AS50530 of Shabdiz Telecom Network PJSC. This outage affected users in Tehran, and  Alborz provinces.

• AS24631 of Tose’h Fanavari Ertebabat Pasargad Arian Co. PJS. This outage affected users in Tehran, and Fars provinces.

• AS48944 of khalij fars Ettela Resan Company J.S. This outage affected users in Khuzestan, Bushehr, and Tehran provinces.

• AS44285 of Sefroyek Pardaz Engineering Co. LTD. This outage affected users in East Azerbaijan, and Tehran provinces.
• AS39074 of Sepanta Communication Development Co. Ltd. This outage affected users in Tehran province.
• AS1756 of Shiraz Hamyar Co.. This outage affected users in Fars province.
• AS202468 of Noyan Abr Arvan Co. PJS. This outage affected users in Tehran province.
• AS43395 of Pooya Parto Qeshm Cooperative Company. This outage affected users in Tehran, Esfahan, and Hormozgan provinces.
• AS49100 of Pishgaman Toseeh Ertebatat Company PJS. This outage affected users in Tehran, Esfahan, and Kerman provinces.
• AS51469 of Petiak System Co JSC. This outage affected users in Tehran province.
• AS58224 of Iran Telecommunication Company PJS. This outage affected users in all provinces besides Chahar Mahall & Bakhtiari province.
• AS48539 of Hesabgar Pardaz Gharb PJSC. This outage affected users in Tehran, Hamadan, and Kermanshah provinces.
• AS50591 of Boomerang Rayaneh. This outage affected users in Fars, and Hormozgan provinces.
• AS43754 of Asiatech Data Transmission. This outage affected users in Tehran, Mazandaran and Razavi Khorasan provinces.
• AS39501 of Parvaresh Dadeha Co. PSJ. This outage affected users in Razavi Khorasan, Esfahan, Fars, Tehran, Alborz, Qazvin, East Azerbaijan, and Kermanshah province.

• AS44400 of Ertebatat Sabet Parsian Co. This outage affected users in Khuzestan, Esfahan, Fars, Tehran, and Ilam provinces.