Iran’s Regime Imposes Nationwide Internet Shutdown as Uprising Expands
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Written by
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
Nationwide Uprising- No. 32
Calls for Urgent International Action to Ensure Free Internet Access for the People of Iran
Fearing the escalation of the nationwide uprising, the clerical regime has imposed a ‘digital blackout,’ completely shutting down the internet across Iran since Thursday, January 8. This action, on the twelfth day of the uprising, follows the expansion of protests on Tuesday and Wednesday, January 6 and 7. The shutdown is intended to prevent the dissemination of images of heroic acts by rebellious youths and news of the suppressive forces’ crimes. The regime had already been throttling internet speeds in the days prior.
This morning, January 8, the internet observatory NetBlocks officially confirmed the shutdown. By publishing a network status chart, it reported that ‘Tehran and other parts of Iran are now entering a digital blackout,’ with internet access plummeting to just 5%.
Technical data from Cloudflare Radar shows that just before 13:00 local time, Iran’s IPv6 addressing space experienced a 98.5% drop, with the protocol’s traffic declining from 12% to 1.8%.
The Iranian Resistance considers this internet shutdown a clear violation of the fundamental rights of the Iranian people, as it blatantly contravenes Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN Human Rights Council resolutions, including resolution 47/16, which strongly condemns such shutdowns. The Iranian Resistance calls on the United Nations, its member states, the Human Rights Council, and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to strongly condemn this ‘cyber siege’ and take immediate measures to ensure the Iranian people’s free access to the internet.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
January 8, 2026
Explanation
NetBlocks Graphic: This chart displays network connectivity in Iran from January 1-8, 2026. The graph line plummets on January 8 (Dey 18), reaching 5% and indicating a near-total internet shutdown or ‘digital blackout’.
Cloudflare Radar Report: This data shows that just before 13:00 local time, IPv6 protocol traffic dropped from 12% to 1.8%, a 98.5% decrease. This confirms the outage was not a technical failure but an ‘engineered and intentional block’ by the regime, aimed at isolating the population and concealing its acts of suppression.
⚠️ Confirmed: Telemetry indicate a major disruption to networks in Belgorod, western #Russia, after Ukraine targets the region's energy installations with missiles; initial analysis suggests one of the most effective infrastructure strikes by Ukraine since the start of the war pic.twitter.com/kGMcnqs1UI
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) January 8, 2026
According to Cloudflare Radar (Cloudflare):
This graphical record shows that just before 13:00, IPv6 protocol traffic experienced a 98.5% collapse, dropping from approximately 12% to 1.8%. Such an abrupt, synchronized decline cannot be explained by a technical malfunction.
Just before 12:00 UTC today, the amount of announced IPv6 address space in #Iran dropped by ~98.5%, concurrent with IPv6 traffic share dropping from ~12% to ~1.8%, as the govt. selectively blocks Internet access amid protests.https://t.co/fU9tATRJFkhttps://t.co/XwZBYITyIu pic.twitter.com/22uKhcALhS
— Cloudflare Radar (@CloudflareRadar) January 8, 2026
The technical evidence clearly demonstrates that the internet disruption was the result of a deliberate, engineered shutdown, carried out to isolate the population and conceal ongoing repression.