The post Iran’s Digital Repression Has Entered A New Phase appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

The graph shows the state of the internet network in Iran on a smartphone screen with an Iranian flag reflected on it. According to the organization NetBlocks, internet access is completely cut off in Iran since January 9, 2026, following protests that sweep the country. In Creteil, France, on January 16, 2026. (Photo Illustration by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images Back in 2012, in his Persian New Year message to the Iranian people, President Obama lamented the “electronic curtain” that had fallen over Iran, as the country’s clerical regime ramped up its digital presence and censorship capabilities to track and neuter the nation’s opposition forces. Fast forward nearly fourteen years, and that curtain has grown markedly thicker. In recent weeks, in response to the most significant domestic unrest in its 46-year history, the Iranian regime imposed a comprehensive internet shutdown. Beginning on January 8th, connectivity trackers such as NetBlocks.org registered a near-total interruption of Iran’s access to the World-Wide Web, as well as to the country’s domestic internet, colloquially known as the National Information Network (NIN). The move was predictable. In 2009, the controversial reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a second presidential term prompted the emergence of the “Green Movement” – a broad-based, internet-savvy protest wave numbering in the millions. Iran’s regime responded by surging online, first to throttle the protests and then to construct a sophisticated web of censorship and information control. That architecture has only grown more sophisticated in recent years, thanks to help from Chinese firms like ZTE and Huawei. At the same time, the Iranian regime has poured billions of dollars into its domestic internet infrastructure, even as the country’s economy has cratered. Those investments reflect a clear recognition in Tehran that connectivity is the lifeblood of the domestic opposition – and…

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Filed under: News - @ January 26, 2026 5:26 pm