As Iran’s internet blackout enters its 17th straight day, Majid-Reza Hariri, head of the Iran–China Chamber of Commerce, said merchants are now being allowed just 20 minutes of internet access per day, and only under the watch of a “supervisor.”
Requiring a physical “supervisor” while a businessman checks his email reflects the extreme level of state paranoia. This supervisor is typically a security or intelligence agent whose role is to ensure the merchant is doing nothing beyond business, such as sending protest footage, contacting activists, or using VPNs to bypass the “Halal Internet,” Iran’s domestic intranet.
On Sunday, January 25, Ali Hakim-Javadi, head of the ICT Guild Organization, said the daily economic damage from the shutdown is between 2 and 3 trillion tomans ($18.1M–$27.2M). Iranian media have also reported severe impacts on jobs, production cycles, and markets.
A shutdown lasting 17 days is devastating for any modern economy. The scale of the daily losses suggests the regime is willing to risk economic collapse and mass unemployment to stop protesters from organizing or sharing evidence of abuses with the outside world.
Earlier, on Thursday, January 22, Farshid Shokr-Khodayi, head of the Investment Commission of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, stated that traders are only permitted to use the internet at Chamber of Commerce locations for the sole purpose of “sending and receiving emails.”
Hariri confirmed that “Business Card holders” (registered merchants) must pre-register for these 20-minute slots under supervision, but emphasized that this “is in no way sufficient to meet the needs of traders.”
While some users have reported brief, sporadic connections in recent days, NetBlocks, which monitors internet connectivity worldwide, said on January 25 that these limited links do not amount to real access to the “free world.” The blackout has now stretched beyond 400 hours.
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