AP: Iran's Internet Shutdown is Crushing Businesses and the Economy
As Iranian currency plunges to historic record lows of around 1,800,000 (1.8 million) Rials to one US dollar, which is less than 50% of its value a year ago, a report by Associated Press from Tehran, shows how the prolonged Internet blackout in Iran is costing the already fragile economy an estimated $60-80 million daily once indirect losses are included. Here are some excerpts from the report:
At her studio in Iran's capital, Amen Khademi prepared a fashion shoot for a jacket she designed with Persian-inspired motifs. But even as she applied lipstick to the model, she was distracted, worrying if her business would survive after four months without its main link to customers - the internet.
Iran's 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world's longest and strictest national shutdowns. That is devastating an online economy that had long defied government restrictions and international sanctions. From fashion to fitness, to advertising and retailers, many have seen their incomes evaporate.
Khademi hasn't made a sale in months. "The internet outage in the past four months has completely destroyed not only my business, but many online businesses," she said.
Despite an uneasy truce with the U.S. and Israel, Iran´s rulers have refused to reverse the shutdown they have depicted as a wartime necessity. But they are facing an outcry as it adds to mass job losses from strikes on key industries and an ongoing U.S. blockade.
Before January, Iranians could access the internet, but authorities blocked a large amount of content. Now all access to the global web has been shut down. Some workarounds exist, but they have become enormously expensive, out of reach for most Iranians.
The internet cutoff costs the economy an estimated $30-40 million daily, with indirect losses likely twice that much, a member of Iran´s Chamber of Commerce, Afshin Kolahi, told a local newspaper. About 10 million people have jobs that depend on internet connectivity, according to the communications minister, Sattar Hashemi...
“What makes Iran’s shutdown unprecedented is the combination of scale and severity: an entire country of 90 million people with a developed digital economy deliberately reverted to a controlled national intranet,” said Alimardani, an associate director for technology threats and opportunities at the rights group Witness.
A flagship company of Iran’s digital economy, online retailer DigiKala, recently said it was laying off 200 people, about 3% of its workforce. The pain extends to “production, foreign trade and even traditional business,” Reza Olfatnasab, head of a national group representing digital businesses, said in comments published in Iranian media.
Khademi’s shopfront is Instagram. But her studio’s page — with more than 30,000 followers — is now inactive. She was doing the photo shoot to save the pictures for later, hoping to find an alternative.
Her model, Farnaz Ojaghloo, is also a fitness coach. The shutdown has dried up both her modeling gigs and the online courses she ran for people inside Iran and abroad.
“Psychologically, it really hits hard,” Ojaghloo said. “All the plans you had for six months or a year ahead get pushed aside, and your only concern becomes surviving in the moment.” ...
Now, the shutdown has stoked high prices for black-market VPNs. Iranian state media routinely report arrests of people for using illegal VPNs or the American satellite system Starlink, which was banned last year.
Senior government officials are awarded “white” SIM cards granting them access to the global internet. ...
You can read the full report HERE:
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