yī lǎng伊朗de的“shù zì jiān yù数字监狱”zài在é luó sī俄罗斯bāng zhù帮助xià下jiàn chéng建成
From December 2025 to January 2026, protests broke out in Iran.
The government cut off the internet multiple times; this was the longest large-scale internet shutdown in Iran's history.
Some say that such a long internet blackout usually means serious violence has already occurred on the streets.
UN officials estimate that the number of victims could be at least 5,000, possibly up to 20,000.
Starting January 8, mobile networks, home broadband, and international internet were almost completely cut off, only beginning to slowly recover on January 23.
By late February, many major platforms were still inaccessible, and many people had to use VPNs.
There is also a 'whitelist' approach: by default, the global internet is blocked, allowing only a few websites and services on the list to be accessible.
Digital rights organizations say this whitelist now controls not just certain SIM cards or websites, but directly controls at the network infrastructure level.
Reports also mention that Russia's technical influence is significant, possibly using a technology that can 'understand' network data, allowing authorities to block by application or traffic type, such as blocking chat apps and videos.
A company called Protei is accused of helping Iran build monitoring, interception, and traffic management systems, but the exact nature of the assistance is unclear.
A Canadian research institute also investigated and believes it was involved in building Iran's mobile monitoring system.