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Iran's self-imposed internet blackout has crossed the 60-day mark, with authorities announcing changes that will enable some businesses and academics to have access.
Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani outlined highlights of the new tiered internet access on Monday.
"The Supreme National Security Council approved the 'Internet Pro' scheme to preserve businesses during times of crisis," she said, according to news outlets.
The finer details about the "Internet Pro" tier are not yet clear, although access is probably still heavily censored.
Ms Mohajerani said that eventually all of Iran would be able to access the internet once authorities consider the current geopolitical problems to be resolved.
NetBlocks, which monitors global digital governance and internet access, refl ected on what Iran's internet update means.
"Metrics show the blackout is now entering its 60th day after 1,416 hours despite regime efforts to introduce tiered access for privileged groups," the non-profit posted on social media.
Iran's internet blackout, which began on February 28 following US and Israeli strikes on the country, is the longest on record, according to NetBlocks.
"The prolonged shutdown continues to cast a veil of digital darkness over human rights violations on the ground," NetBlocks said recently on X.
Cloudflare Radar, which also monitors global internet traffic, separately addressed the internet developments in Iran.
"Increased allow-listing of external sites, and the availability of 'Internet Pro' access has driven nominal increases in traffic visible in the latter half of April," the Cloudflare Radar posted to its X social media account.
Amid the blackout, alternative apps such as BitChat Mesh, which allow for messaging without conventional internet infrastructure, have seen a surge in downloads throughout the country.
While most of the country remains offline, the outage does not seem to have affected Iran-linked cyber crime and hacking groups, which have managed to impact various businesses and entities in the US.
On Monday, Handala, a prominent hacker group linked to Tehran, claimed to have sent WhatsApp messages to US Marines and Israelis.
In a message sent to its Telegram followers on Monday, Handala said that “every single US Marine" in the Arabian Gulf has received a message claiming the recipients' identities are known to the group.
“Very soon, you will be targeted by our Shahed drones and Kheibar and Ghadeer missiles,” the message says.
An updated post added that “hundreds of thousands of Zionists residing in the occupied territories” have also received a threatening WhatsApp message.
In March, Handala said it had gained access to FBI director Kash Patel's personal email and cloud accounts. The group posted dozens of photos and documents linked to Mr Patel.
It also compromised computer systems belonging to Stryker, a US-based medical technology company that employs thousands of people around the world.
