Iran reconnects - but not everyone is free to browse | DW News

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]In Iran, internet users are slowly gaining online access again after months of blackout. Authorities in Iran first shut down the internet in January during a violent crackdown on large anti-government protests. A further shutdown was imposed at the start of the USIsraeli strikes on Iran at the end of February, cutting off roughly 90 million Iranians from the internet for most of the year. It's been described as the longest nationwide internet shutdown in modern history. Online access is now slowly being restored this week, but many users have complained of limited connectivity and restrictions on many sites.

[00:00:41]>> Maybe there are 10% of people who want to abuse this situation, but the other 90% are suffering. We've incurred heavy losses, and I don't know how this is going to be compensated. We have all regressed. I can tell you that in these four months, we've perhaps regressed 10 years.

[00:00:58]>> There was a sense of isolation as if we'd been cut off from the world and even within Iran. As someone who works with children, I need to be in constant contact with them and to see what's happening in the global art world. I needed to see these things, but I was completely cut off. I didn't know what was happening. I could only see my immediate surroundings, the house, the street corner, places like that. I couldn't see anything else.

[00:01:28]Most people had gotten used to ordering online and that's why we suffered a huge loss from this situation, losing good customers.

[00:01:39]>> Some voices there from inside Iran. We can now speak to SA Shakib. She's an Iranian writer, filmmaker, journalist, and now joins us on the line. SA internet connection came partially back on Wednesday. Uh what are you hearing?

[00:01:53]What's the situation right now?

[00:01:56]>> Thank you for shedding light on Iran, Gad. Well, the internet is very slow.

[00:02:01]Every connection uh breaks down every couple of minutes. We have to redial uh and even text messages take a long time before they get to the people and before we receive an answer. And a great deal of damage has been done as you showed in your little film. Um, not only private connections have broken down for 88 days. That's a long time. And especially it is not just any time. It is a time after which um 40,000 some say 50,000 people have been killed within only two days by the government. Um, more than 10,000 people have been shot in the face so that they lost their eyesight and more than 400,000 people have been injured and are being shot dead partially in the hospitals. Doctors who take care of them um have been imprisoned have been shot down as well in the hospital. Now about the timing of this reopening. Why has the regime done that this now? Is this ma mainly a business decision to support businesses who rely on the internet?

[00:03:20]I think the Iran the the the Islamic um uh government in Iran has been making and is making all its decisions randomly and there is no real logic behind it and there is no real reasoning behind it and they are not united anymore. Don't forget the IRGC is now um the major force in the government. Religious um uh um uh influence has been diminished. Um and a lot of private people like for instance Peshkan um uh are trying to have a say in this mishmash um that is existing since a couple of months >> now. Does this also mean that the regime is not afraid of protests anymore?

[00:04:14]>> Oh yes, they are. And all the news I'm just coming from the from a meeting where we have tried to coordinate the information that we get from our contacts, friends and family in Iran.

[00:04:27]And um it seems to be that no not it seems to be case is fact is um that the government has been um as I just mentioned uh shot many people in the hospitals that they didn't get in the first place on 8th and 9th of January but only uh injured them and now they go and finish the job as they say and um they have executed more than 2,000 people um in the prisons, children, young people, they have just executed them in fiveinut trials, not even a real trial.

[00:05:09]>> Now, the reopening of the internet, if you will, even if it's only uh partial and a bit sketchy, will that make a difference for what remains of the opposition?

[00:05:21]>> Look, the opposition unfortunately is imprisoned. Narz Muhammadi, one of the or maybe the more most famous um activists who also received the Nobel Peace Prize is in hospital right now and um they anyway have no um internet and they anyway have no access to um publish their opinions and be active as us who are outside the country or even people in Iran um who are active And um I think that yes without internet we are doomed once again. But the biggest problem we have right now is that Trump had promised he will change the regime.

[00:06:08]>> Help is on its way. And since the war began against Iran, the situation has not only not improved, but it's become worse. And some of us think that it's worse than ever because for the first time the United States of America and Israel have come into Iran to help the change of regime, the change of government and all they have done is make the government even stronger.

[00:06:41]>> The Iranian writer and filmmaker SA Shakib there. Thank you very much uh SA for sharing your thoughts with us.

[00:06:49]Thank you.