Iran's January 2026 Internet Shutdown: Public Data, Censorship Methods, and Circumvention Techniques
2026-03-30 • Networking and Internet Architecture
Networking and Internet Architecture
AI summaryⓘ
The authors study the big internet shutdown in Iran in January 2026 during protests, looking at how it affected communication and information control. They wanted to create a clear and complete picture by combining different data sources rather than relying on small reports. Their research questions focused on understanding the timeline of the shutdown, how well it could be detected, and how censorship interacted with efforts to bypass it. To do this, they used a mix of public and private data related to network measurements to get a full view of the event.
Internet shutdownIran protestsnetwork measurementcensorshipcircumvention toolsinformation accessdigital communicationnetwork monitoringgrey literature
Authors
Giuseppe Aceto, Valerio Persico, Antonio Pescapè
Abstract
This paper analyzes the Internet shutdown that occurred in Iran in January 2026 in the context of protests, focusing on its impact on the country's digital communication infrastructure and on information access and control dynamics. The scale, complexity, and nation-state nature of the event motivate a comprehensive investigation that goes beyond isolated reports, aiming to provide a unified and systematic understanding of what happened and how it was observed. The study is guided by a set of research questions addressing: the characterization of the shutdown via the timeline of the disruption events and post-event "new normal"; the detectability of the event, encompassing monitoring initiatives, measurement techniques, and precursory signals; and the interplay between censorship and circumvention, assessing both the imposed restrictions and the effectiveness of tools designed to bypass them. To answer these questions, we adopt a multi-source, multi-perspective methodology that integrates heterogeneous public data, primarily from grey literature produced by network measurement and monitoring initiatives, complemented by additional private measurements. This approach enables a holistic view of the event and allows us to reconcile and compare partial observations from different sources.