Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Email
Print
Three-minute read
A damning new report published by the Tehran E-commerce Association reveals the catastrophic state of Iran’s internet, exposing a reality of technological backwardness and mass digital defiance. The data, originating from within Iran, shows the regime’s policy of digital suppression has not only failed to control the population but has also turned an entire generation against its authority. The report ranks Iran 97th out of 100 of the world’s largest economies for internet quality, a position earned through what it calls a user experience defined by three words: “slow, disruptive, and restricted.”
A Deliberate Policy of Digital Isolation
This digital collapse is not a result of technical incompetence but of a deliberate state policy designed to isolate Iranians. According to the report, Iran’s internet quality is only marginally better than that of nations like Cuba, Sudan, and Ethiopia. A key metric for user experience, the Round-Trip Time (RTT), which measures data latency, averages 295 milliseconds in Iran—a figure that places the country alongside nations in active states of war or with severely underdeveloped infrastructure.
The regime has used the brief “12-day war” in June 2025 as a pretext for further crackdowns, but the data confirms these restrictions are a permanent feature of its oppressive strategy. Crucial modern internet protocols like HTTP/3 remain blocked on most networks, and overall quality has not returned to its pre-conflict levels. This technical data paints a clear picture: the regime is purposefully constructing a digital prison to sever its people’s connection to the outside world, fearing the free flow of information.
#Iran News in Brief
MP Javad Nikbin admits that the clerical regime not only imposes political restrictions through #internet censorship but also benefits economically from it.
He stated in a TV interview, “I believe and say it explicitly that the authors of internet censorship… pic.twitter.com/oSGV4ensuh
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) November 8, 2023
Mass Digital Civil Disobedience
The regime’s iron curtain has been met with a powerful and widespread act of civil disobedience. The report reveals a stunning statistic: 93.8% of Iranians under the age of 30 use VPNs and other censorship-circumvention tools to access the global internet. Across the entire population, that figure stands at a remarkable 86%.
This mass defiance is a direct reaction to the regime’s escalating oppression. The report notes that before the major crackdowns tied to the 2022 uprising, more than 62% of users did not need such tools. The near-universal adoption of VPNs by Iran’s youth is not merely a technical workaround; it is a daily political statement and a wholesale rejection of the regime’s legitimacy and control. The state’s multi-billion dollar censorship apparatus has been rendered effectively useless by the very people it seeks to silence.
Strangling Livelihoods, Fueling Resistance
The regime’s war on the internet is also a war on the livelihoods of its people. The report highlights that Instagram remains the platform of choice for 63% of internet users, and it is the primary source of income for over 60% of Iranians who earn a living via social media. Yet, the platform has been blocked since 2022, forcing entrepreneurs and small businesses to rely on failing circumvention tools to survive.
#Iran’s Digital Apartheid: Regime Loyalists Flood the #Internet While the Rest of the Nation Goes Darkhttps://t.co/qFQw7Bi9wc
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 20, 2025
In response to this economic and informational strangulation, Iranians are increasingly turning to un-censorable satellite internet services like Starlink, with usage continuing an upward trend despite regime threats. This turn to alternative technologies underscores a population that refuses to be cut off and is actively seeking ways to route around state control.
A Regime at War with the Future
The findings from the Tehran E-commerce Association show that the regime has created a digital backwater, isolated itself technologically, and crippled its own economy out of fear of its people. More importantly, it has decisively lost the battle for information control.
The daily act of defiance by millions of young Iranians who bypass the state’s digital walls is a clear and ongoing referendum on the regime’s illegitimacy. They have already chosen a future connected to the free world—a future that the decaying regime is incapable of delivering and is actively fighting to prevent.