{"id":463828,"date":"2026-05-28T05:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T05:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/463828\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T05:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T05:02:08","slug":"this-isnt-freedom-anger-anxiety-and-tears-as-irans-internet-flickers-back-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/463828\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This isn\u2019t freedom\u2019: anger, anxiety and tears as Iran\u2019s internet flickers back | Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 88 days of near-total internet blackout in Iran, long-delayed messages, images and poems flooded phones and social media feeds at about 5pm on Tuesday, when still-limited connectivity flickered back to life<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first reactions, however, were not celebratory. Many new posts were threaded with scepticism, anxiety and anger.<\/p>\n

Ellie*, 42, an artist from Tehran, was able to connect for the first time since 28 February. \u201cI lit a cigarette, played SoundCloud and listened to our favourite music,\u201d she said. \u201cAli [her husband] and I held back tears, then cried and convinced ourselves that this was a small taste of a much greater freedom after the fall of this regime \u2026 and we truly believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The part-restoration hit global headlines, with many regime supporters applauding the government.<\/p>\n

Maryam*, a photographer in Tehran, said it was \u201cnauseating to watch the celebrations and applause\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an absolute joke,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been truly absurd watching western media celebrate partial restoration as if it\u2019s an achievement to applaud the regime for. The internet is our basic right.\u201d<\/p>\n

graphic<\/a><\/p>\n

She said it had been more than six weeks since she had booked an assignment, she had had to borrow money from her parents, and part-restoration would not allow her to work effectively. \u201cMobile internet still can\u2019t connect,\u201d she said. \u201cWhatsApp is barely in use, the only thing is that VPNs are easier to connect to now. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities initially imposed an internet blackout from 8 January in a crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests. Connections were gradually restored in February, before a new blackout after the start of US and Israeli strikes against Iran<\/a> in late February.<\/p>\n

A small number of people managed to get online intermittently through costly VPNs and satellite internet, but the vast majority were stuck in digital isolation.<\/p>\n

For those unable to afford the rocketing price of VPNs that rarely worked, Tuesday was the first time they were able to post on their social media accounts. \u201cHello, fellow prisoners. I feel like I am on a temporary leave from prison,\u201d a Tehran-based student posted on Instagram.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to meet the digital demands of businesses in select sectors, Iran\u2019s national security council had approved \u201cinternet pro\u201d last month, albeit with limitations. Some welcomed wider connectivity with cautious optimism, but others viewed it with suspicion.<\/p>\n

Iranians in Washington DC take part in a protest against the internet blackout on 2 May 2026. Photograph: Ali Khaligh\/Zuma Press\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Mina*, 23, a protester arrested in January, said she feared expanded surveillance rather than a full restoration. \u201cThey have no reason to open the internet unless this is a way to move the population towards \u2018internet pro\u2019 or into tunnels where they can monitor us more easily,\u201d she said. \u201cWe call this filternet. This is not a sign of freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Posts mourned those executed or awaiting execution, videos showed grieving mothers clutching photographs of children killed during the January protests, and images documented the destruction brought by war. Many Iranians described scrolling through their phones in tears, confronting an archive of the loss that had unfolded.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy accounts are filled with videos of funerals of mothers wailing, fathers screaming and children lying on the graves of their parents. My heart is heavier than it was,\u201d said Amin*, a professor based in Tehran. \u201cWe are the biggest losers of this war. It\u2019s not the US, Israel and neither the Islamic Republic. We lost our livelihoods, our youth and our trust in the international community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humour, too, has returned in fragments, often edged with bitterness. \u201cTrump needs to shut his DMs because he hasn\u2019t faced the true wrath of those who trusted him to help,\u201d said Moein*, an IT professional from Karaj. \u201cThe regime has clearly won the PR war because even those who hate the regime are also now angry at Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

The online return of friends and family also brought mixed feelings for Iranians in the diaspora. \u201cI experienced strange feelings, both happy and sad,\u201d said Mahshid Nazemi, 38, a human rights advocate based in Paris. \u201cI was sad for my friends who were not online and I constantly checked their accounts to see if they were connected or not. I am not sure if they were arrested or killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her sister, who depended on the internet for work, had been distressed by the loss of her livelihood and was left with profound grief over images of those killed in January and during the war.<\/p>\n

Amin said the return of the internet was a reminder of all that had been lost: \u201cWhat truly came back online is our misery, not freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Names have been changed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 88 days of near-total internet blackout in Iran, long-delayed messages, images and poems flooded phones and social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-463828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}