"Not just censorship, it’s digital isolation:" Iran plans to cut ties with the global internet — and VPNs may not help this time

Twenty days: that's how long Iran has been disconnected from the global internet in what experts describe as "one of the most severe blackouts in history."

Authorities imposed a near-total communication blackout on January 8 in response to mass anti-government protests, cutting off fixed-line internet, mobile data, and international voice calls.

Even domestic communication services and Starlink connections were severely disrupted. While it's impossible to know the correct number due to the harsh internet shutdown, up to 30,000 protesters are thought to have been killed during the demonstrations, according to the latest estimation.

Yet, this was merely the beginning of a new internet in Iran. Connectivity is now slowly being restored, but the government has reportedly begun enforcing a whitelisting system to police who can access what.

This means most of the 90 million Iranians will be able to access only a small list of approved websites, while security-vetted elites may be granted wider access.

"It’s not just censorship, it’s digital isolation. This will hurt everyday life, jobs, learning, even talking to family abroad. It also makes it harder to share news or organize protests," Azam Jangravi, Lead Security at OpenText, told TechRadar, describing the move as "locking the internet behind a wall and handing out a few keys."

How to build a "Barracks internet"

Texas-based Iranian digital rights group, Filterwatch, was the first to disclose more details on the government plan to transform the country’s internet infrastructure into what they deem a "Barracks Internet."

Referring to "exclusive intelligence obtained by Filterwatch," experts explain that authorities have tasked Iranian security contractors, Yaftar and Doran Group, with deploying the Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) updates needed to make this happen.

According to Filterwatch, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani not only confirmed that international internet access won't be reopened until March 2026, but "[it] will never return to its previous form."

It seems, however, that enforcing Iran's new whitelisting filtering model was the plan since the beginning.

In his technical evaluation, Doug Madory, the Director of Internet Analysis at Kentik, found that during the shutdown, authorities disrupted only IPv6 traffic, leaving IPv4 routes online.

"This distinction is central to Iran’s next step: internet whitelisting,” notes Madory. "By keeping IPv4 routes in circulation, Iranian authorities can selectively grant full internet access to specific users while denying it to the broader population."

On Tuesday (January 27), while recording a partial restoration of connectivity, Madory noted that traffic looked "very jagged" as a "new traffic filtering system has been installed and can't keep up." This could indicate a further development in Iran's whitelisting system.

Using a VPN in Iran? Increasingly harder, if not imposssible

According to experts at internet watchdog IODA, Iran's first attempt at using whitelisting filter technologies via its National Information Network (NIN) occurred during government-imposed internet restrictions in June – the same time as the Twelve-Day war with Israel.

On that occasion, however, Iranians managed to use VPNs to evade blocks. This may soon not be the case.

According to Filterwatch data, the recent DPI updates are specifically designed "to fingerprint and flag VPN traffic" as well as the traffic routing via Starlink.

Talking to TechRadar, Jangravi from OpenText confirmed that, while tools like virtual private networks (VPNs) and Tor Browser still help currently, they are increasingly becoming harder to use. "The government blocks or slows them down fast. People have to keep switching tools just to stay connected," she said.

That's because, Jangravi explained, whitelisting makes VPN blocking much easier.

"Authorities can block all unknown traffic and only allow approved protocols. So VPNs, Tor, and even new tools get spotted and shut down faster. It’s a constant race."

Mazay Banzaev, the Founder of Russia-based Amnezia VPN – a software that's specifically designed to work in strict censorship environments – also expects VPNs to become largely unavailable, simply because there will be nowhere for a tunnel to connect to.

"Only VPN tunnels that are pre-approved by state authorities will continue to function," said Banzaev.

Surfshark and Proton VPN share a similar view, with the former deeming the move "a clear and brutal infringement of human rights."

"If there is no internet, then there's virtually nothing that a VPN can do," David Peterson, General Manager for Proton VPN, also told TechRadar, adding that "Proton will work alongside people affected by such measures to help them reach the outside world whenever gaps or opportunities arise."

Beyond Iran

North Korea has been, for a long time, the best-known country to enforce a near-total control of the internet with whitelisting technology. Now, Iran is catching up – but it isn't the only one.

From a blacklist-focused regime, Russia is also reportedly turning towards a whitelist regime in a bid to make the fences around its national Runet even stronger.

Asked about how the systems in Iran and Russia may differ, Madory from Kentik told Techradar that, while he doesn't know much about the technical details of the Russian model, he expects these mechanisms to be very similar.

"The objective would be to block everything (including VPNs) and only allow a narrowly defined set of traffic," Madory told Techradar. "I'm concerned that this practice may become a trend."

After all, we do know that authoritarian countries have been exchanging their knowledge on how to censor the open web for years.

We have previously reported how China is helping Pakistan to build a Great Firewall-like internet censorship system. A September leak then showed that China exported its Great Firewall system, one of the most comprehensive censorship systems available, to Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Kazakhstan.

From a technical point of view, authoritarian nations seem now to be on a similar level. Yet, according to Banzaev from AmneziaVPN, the tech is only part of the story.

"The difference lies in how far authorities are willing to go to isolate themselves from the global internet."

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