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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Aisha Down

Internet blackout is tool of desperate regime to isolate Iranians, say experts

Hand and smartphone without internet connection above table with laptop and Persian-style tablecloth
A woman in Tehran shows her smartphone during a nationwide internet shutdown instigated by the Iranian government in response to protests in January. Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

Roughly four hours after the first strikes hit Iran, the country was again plunged into a full internet blackout – severely curtailing the information that has left the country and the ability of Iranians to communicate with each other.

A small fraction of this blackout appears to be a result of infrastructure damage caused by US or Israeli strikes, possibly to a fibre optic cable, according to Doug Madory, at the internet analytics firm Kentik. There appeared to be several small outages affecting multiple networks, which could be caused by technical failures such as a fibre cut or power outage, he said.

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