During the month of June, the internet of Iran experienced several issues, including a severe disruption on what would have marked the tenth birthday of Kian Pirfalak, a 9-year-old boy who was killed on November 16th, 2022 by police forces during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising in Iran. Authorities have not issued any statement or reactions to these disruptions.
Despite, on June 25, ICT Minister Zarepour claiming the quality of the Internet’s connection has improved, on June 27, President Ebrahim Raisi ordered a dedicated committee to investigate the reason for internet disruptions and low connectivity.
A pattern of disruption in some cities
Our investigations in Filterwatch show difficulties in accessing the internet in Iran, and in certain regions, the disruptions followed a certain pattern. Moreover, we got some evidence of an internet shutdown in Iran, which cannot be seen on internet monitoring websites.
Our field research from resources inside the country demonstrates that on June 10th, marking Kian Pirfalak’s birthday – access to mobile data in Izeh, the city where he was born, and north of Khuzestan province was disrupted. This evidence is also confirmed by journalists and media.
This month, internet disruptions also occurred in the Alborz province near Tehran and appeared to follow a certain pattern. According to IODA data, this province experienced a severe disruption around 12 a.m. GMT time (around 4:30 a.m. local time) everyday. Local authorities did not issue any announcements or comments in response.
It is unclear what has triggered these disruptions.
Internet disruptions, which initially started on Bloody Friday, continue to impact people in Sistan and Baluchestan province. In particular, the province of Sistan and Baluchestan was disconnected from the world and other parts of the country on almost every Friday.
According to IODA, Sistan and Baluchestan faced major disruptions (Near total internet shutdowns) on the following days:
- 9th of June 2023 from 9 a.m. GMT
- 23rd of June 2023, from 9 a.m. GMT
- 30th of June 2023, from 7:30 a.m. GMT
As the graph demonstrates, on all Fridays – except for the 26th of June 2023, the province was impacted by shutdowns. Authorities have not issued any public reaction to these disruptions yet.
According to Arvan Cloud radar, we observed a severe disruption in Iran’s data centers on June 29.
A weaker pattern of disruption occurred a week beforehand but, on June 29, all data centers in all MCI data operators in Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz, Mobinnet, Pars Online, Shatel, and Sefr-o-yek data centers experienced it.
Disruptions in Google Services in Iran
According to FilterWatch, on June 29, Google services were disrupted in Iran. Some resources inside the country link this disruption to infrastructure issues.
This disruption happened during the Elecomp (Electronics, Computer & E-Commerce) expo in Tehran.
Zarepour declared that the situation of the Internet is being evaluated, without mentioning the disruptions in the country.
Mohammad Jafarpour, CEO of Telecommunication Infrastructure Company of Iran, identified Google as the cause of this disruption and mentioned, This limitation is gradually increasing, but the TCI is working to address it
He had no additional information about this disruption. At the time of this writing, no other reports were published regarding the disruption to Google services for Iranians.
National railway network of Iran (Called: Railways of Islamic Republic of Iran) experienced a near-total internet shutdown from June 11 to June 23.
According to IODA, the internet connection of AS205490 (Registered as, Railway of Islamic Republic of Iran – Rai.ir) was disrupted on June 13. No reaction from
Other remarkable disruptions:
- On June 14, Thirteen provinces of Iran experienced severe disruptions.
- On June 20, Seventeen provinces of Iran experienced severe Internet disruptions.
- On June 21, four provinces of Iran experienced severe Internet disruptions.
- On June 23, ten provinces of Iran experienced severe internet disruptions.
- On June 26, Hamedan province experienced severe disruption for 2 hours. On the same day, 14 provinces of Iran experienced internet disruptions.
