End to Iran’s 88-day internet blackout stalled by legal challenge

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Delay, reportedly due to hardliners, comes amid worsening economic crisis and fears of mass unemployment

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A last-minute legal obstacle has been placed in the way of Iran ending its 88-day internet blackout.

As the Iranian government announced on Tuesday that the blackout was being brought to an end, an administrative court ruled it would hear a claim that the body overseeing internet use in the country had not been lawfully established.

The legal intervention underlines political tensions behind the lifting of internet restrictions among hardliners opposed to the western-influenced internet. One newspaper accused a group of hardliners of being behind the appeal to the administrative justice court. The court itself insisted it was not charged with examining the lifting of internet restrictions themselves, but only the powers of the department for organising and managing cyberspace.

The intervention will embarrass Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, who has been pressing for the 88-day internet blackout to be ended. It is not clear how long the court needs to decide the issue.

Iranian officials pointed to the return of Gmail inside Iran as the first sign that the long demanded, and trailed, change was being implemented. The ban has cut Iranians – save for a privileged minority – off from the global internet.

Fears of mass unemployment and commercial bankruptcy led to Pezeshkian – who campaigned on a promise of a free internet – to lobby behind the scenes with security officials for the restrictions to be lifted. A formal announcement was made after a vote by the special taskforce for cyberspace management.

Iran’s communications minister, Sattar Hashemi, hailed the government announcement on Tuesday that the blackout was being brought to an end but said restoring the internet would be a gradual process.

He said: “Internet restrictions in recent months have caused significant damage to the digital economy, online businesses and the country’s service industries. The continuation of this situation could, in addition to the economic damage, have led to the weakening of investment, the emigration of elite human resources, and the expansion of communication patterns outside the framework of the country’s official governance.”

Security officials had resisted a return to the status quo prior to protests in January, fearing free communication with the west might engender more demonstrations. Iranian officials frequently blame satellite channels and social media content for beaming anti-government propaganda into Iranian homes, but many Iranians say the repression of the internet was designed to hide a systemic crackdown on protests, including a spate of judicial executions.

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Amnesty International said last week that Iranian authorities “have arbitrarily executed at least 36 individuals sentenced to death after being convicted of politically motivated charges. At least 78 protesters, dissidents and others with real or perceived links to banned opposition groups are under sentence of death and at risk of execution.”

One estimate suggests as many as 5m jobs in Iran are dependent on the internet, and the crackdown has worsened an already dire economic crisis and high inflation. The cost of food has spiralled, leaving many staple parts of the Iranian diet, such as chicken, beyond the reach of many families. Female workers, including many in rural areas, have been hit especially hard by the blackout.

In remarks last week that were widely challenged, the ministry of labour denied that the shutdown had led to job losses, saying companies operating on Instagram had switched to domestic messaging services such as Rubika. Many firms said their businesses had been dependent on the Google search engine, and the total losses to the economy were more than $6m a day.

A survey by the Tehran Electronics Association of more than 900 companies found the loss of access to WhatsApp, Telegram and Instagram meant they had lost access to 75% of their communication channels. More than 223,000 people had applied for government insurance since the start of the war, one small index of the numbers losing their jobs.

The shutdown started during the January economic and political protests, but Iran’s national security council intensified the blackout when the US and Israel attacked on 28 February. Iran imposes fierce penalties on anyone found sending information or pictures to satellite channels such as Iran International.

In an attempt to calm the repeated demand for the internet to be restored as a public right, the national security council approved a plan – called Internet Pro – to grant certain groups paid internet access, albeit with a daily usage limit on foreign websites and international data traffic. But the cost of access was prohibitive to many young people.

Platforms such as Instagram, X and YouTube have long been formally blocked in Iran but are routinely accessed via virtual private networks (VPNs). The Iranian political class frequently use X even though it is nominally unlawful. There is also a lucrative business in Iran in the sale of anti-filtering devices.

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