Targeted VPN Protocol Disruption Following New Legislation: 

Between February 8, 2024, and the end of the month, there have been widespread and deliberate disruptions on protocols used in censorship circumvention tools and VPNs. Our research, which includes insights from developers of widely-used VPNs in Iran and data from the network monitoring community, indicates extensive and targeted disruptions on protocols such as Shadowsocks,Continue reading “Targeted VPN Protocol Disruption Following New Legislation: “

End of the Definite Internet Shutdown Pattern in Sistan and Baluchestan; Continuation of Unexplained Disruptions

Seven months after the order by Ibrahim Raisi, the President of Iran, to the Ministry of Communications to investigate the cause of internet slowness and disruptions and to resolve them, no response has been given to this directive. Instead, he reiterated this order during the opening session of a communications project on December 22, 2023,Continue reading “End of the Definite Internet Shutdown Pattern in Sistan and Baluchestan; Continuation of Unexplained Disruptions”

Iran’s Internet Crisis in November: A Month of Disruptions

In the month of November, Iran’s internet infrastructure faced significant challenges. The country experienced three major national-level outages, along with two additional disruptions affecting mobile and internet operators.  In all three outages, the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company attributed the fault to disruptions in transmission lines and international internet routes. The severe network routing disruption, or ActiveContinue reading “Iran’s Internet Crisis in November: A Month of Disruptions”

Scheduled Internet Disruptions following the Anniversary of Mahsa (Jina) Amini’s Death

September 16 marked the first anniversary of Mahsa (Jina) Amini and as well as the anniversary of Bloody Friday in the city of Zahedan. Sistan and Baluchestan province has faced weekly internet shutdowns every Friday for a year now.  Since November 2019, Iran has implemented internet shutdowns nearly ten times, each in response to eitherContinue reading “Scheduled Internet Disruptions following the Anniversary of Mahsa (Jina) Amini’s Death”

New Tactics And Measures To Restrict The Internet Emerged

Nationwide protests ignited by the death of Mahsa Jhina Amini in September continued into October without any signs of letting up. In response, Iranian authorities aimed to contain and silence protestors and activists by implementing various restrictions to the Internet, including mobile shutdowns. This month we observed a shift in some of the tactics usedContinue reading “New Tactics And Measures To Restrict The Internet Emerged”

The Role of Domestic Messaging Apps in Iran’s Information Controls 

Just under three years have passed since Filterwatch wrote about the significance and dangers of Iran’s domestic messaging apps. We are seeing increasing instances of major privacy violations by these apps, as they seek to expand their user base. Although some might argue that these apps still fail to mount a serious challenge to internationalContinue reading “The Role of Domestic Messaging Apps in Iran’s Information Controls “

Network Monitor – December 2020

In Iran, December 2020 was an ‘Instagram story’ of internet disruptions that largely seemed to affect the popular social media platform. Although the disruption of Iranian Instagram traffic isn’t uncommon, the Filterwatch team observed more significant service interruptions this month than in preceding months. On the basis of the available evidence, it appears that misconfiguredContinue reading “Network Monitor – December 2020”

Network Monitor – November 2020

Iran’s internet was quite stable throughout November 2020. The only meaningful disruption in this period took place on November 16 and 17, which happened to coincide with the anniversary of last year’s protests and nationwide internet shutdown. On these two days, many users reported that their connections were slow and disrupted. A source at TelecommunicationContinue reading “Network Monitor – November 2020”

Network Monitor – October 2020

Network Monitor – October 2020 In October Filterwatch observed three major disruptions. Internet users in Khuzestan were particularly adversely affected by these disruptions. The three key stories this month include: AS58256 Rayaneh Gostar Farzanegan Ahwaz were almost offline on October 26 8 o’clock. IPM had two major disruptions on October 14 and 16. Tehran MunicipalityContinue reading “Network Monitor – October 2020”

Network Monitor – September 2020

A significant disruption incident took place in September when, on September 19, Google IP addresses were hijacked by the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company (TIC). An Iranian official claimed that this disruption was the result of a misconfiguration, and that it was not intentional. In July 2018 the Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI) caused a similar disruptionContinue reading “Network Monitor – September 2020”