Iranians are slowly coming back online, but for an economy already battered by chronic inflation, international sanctions and a collapsing currency, the outage is seen as the final blow, cutting off online trade as one of the few remaining survival strategies for many families.
After nearly three weeks of near‑total isolation from the global internet − triggered by anti-government protests in which thousands were killed − access briefly began to return for some users on Saturday, only to be disrupted again hours later.
The blackout triggered an immediate economic shock in an already dire situation, particularly for the thousands of online sellers.
“It’s been more than two weeks and I haven’t had one single order,” a business owner who sells curtains through Instagram told The National on condition of anonymity. “We don’t even have a shop. We run our business from home and sell online,” he added, pointing to how online trade has turned into a last resort for many families who cannot afford a physical store.
That experience reflects a broader reality: many digital businesses in Iran are built almost entirely on Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram and are now paying the price of the authorities' security measures.
Farsi media have estimated Iran’s Instagram user base at more than 30 million − making it the backbone of the country’s informal online economy, despite the fact that Instagram is blocked and users have to resort to using a VPN to get online.
“Online business became a viable hustle for many of us because our salaries no longer help make ends meet,” said a 34‑year‑old woman who bakes cookies and pastries and sells them through Instagram and WhatsApp. “Now, that little hope is gone.”
Customers are feeling the pinch too. Before the blackout, online shops often offered lower prices and discounts compared with physical stores − a lifeline for a population struggling under a 42 per cent inflation and a national currency stuck near 1.4 million rials to the dollar despite protests that were meant to address those very pressures.
“We protested to make things better,” said a customer in a cafe in Tehran who asked to remain anonymous. “But now we’re branded terrorists by authorities and deprived of our smallest hope to live normally.”
Internet monitoring organisation NetBlocks estimates the shutdown is costing Iran more than $37 million every day it continues.
Iranian officials have acknowledged the economic harm, but placed it lower. Deputy IT Minister Ehsan Chitsaz told state media that the daily losses reach up to $4.3 million.
Mr Chitsaz noted that the damage has been most severe in digital advertising and online tourism. “In a climate of tension and uncertainty, businesses do not place advertising orders. When internet disruptions become routine, there is neither an audience, a stable platform, nor confidence for long-term planning,” he added.
Flickering back
Some online shops have managed to reconnect temporarily, but these workarounds are still unreliable. “It’s not like everyone is back online,” wrote a phone accessories seller on Telegram who said they managed to connect intermittently. “It’s just a few of us, sometimes, for a few minutes. That’s not business.”
For many small sellers, inconsistent connectivity is often worse than none at all, because it creates a cycle of missed orders, frustrated customers and long‑term loss of trust.
Even amid the shutdown, Iranian apps and websites continued to operate through the National Information Network – an internal system maintaining domestic connectivity while global access remains blocked. Local e‑commerce services like Digikala and ride‑hailing apps such as Snapp and Tapsi remain accessible on this network.
But even as they preserve connectivity, the shutdown’s impact has been severe. Snapp warned that the blackout threatens over a decade of investment and the livelihoods of more than 10,000 direct employees and millions more indirectly. “User requests have dropped 80 per cent, with daily revenue losses of around $357,000,” it announced in a statement. The company added that if the outage continues, it could trigger brain drain and shrink the country’s tech ecosystem, hitting small businesses and domestic innovation hard.
Unlike Snapp and Digikala − whose foreign rivals such as Uber and Amazon have never operated in Iran − domestic messaging and social apps, like Rubika, Baleh and Eitaa, saw the shutdown as an opportunity to fill the void. With WhatsApp, Telegram, and Instagram largely inaccessible amid the blackout, these local platforms have launched aggressive campaigns to position themselves as alternatives and capture a larger user base.
Despite a forced migration to these apps, many Iranians remain sceptical. Local messaging platforms like Rubika and Baleh are affiliated with Iran’s state‑linked telecom and media ecosystem, and that alone creates a trust gap.
For years, these apps have been banned on Google Play following sanctions‑related removals, and warnings about intrusive data collection and privacy risks have left many users wary.
“Not everyone is on these apps,” said the woman with the home‑based pastry shop. “They’re often used by people with ties to government. They have created a good market, but still millions of users are afraid to use them for privacy reasons.”
Iran has experienced internet shutdowns before, during the 2019 fuel price protests and in 2022 amid the unrest that followed the death of Mahsa Amini, cutting digital access to suppress co-ordination and limit competing narratives abroad.
More than 5,400 people have been killed during the latest wave of protests, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Iranian authorities say 3,100 people have been killed in total. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday also detailed that 700 shops, 300 homes, 750 banks and more than 400 government buildings were damaged during the protests.
Despite the clear economic fallout, officials continue to justify the blackout as a security measure, arguing that protests are being amplified by hostile foreign influence. The government said it respects citizens’ right to access the internet, but added that the shutdown was implemented “by the security authorities under the prevailing circumstances of the country.”
Authorities are now calling for more efficient ways to control connectivity. Abolhassan Firouzabadi, former secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace, warned that “the tool of shutting down the internet will soon become obsolete”, highlighting the challenge posed by satellite and other emerging technologies.
Iranian media are now framing the intermittent access as the new normal and implying that unrestricted connectivity is no longer guaranteed even after immediate unrest subsides.
For businesses, that uncertainty is the major concern.
“For years, we blamed our economic woes on sanctions, but now the government is sacrificing our livelihood for security. In the meantime, thousands of households are losing their last breath,” said the online curtain seller.
