Iran Internet Shutdown Cripples Online Businesses, Cuts Babak’s Job in Tehran

Iran’s digital economy is facing widespread disruption as a government-imposed internet shutdown and outages have crippled online businesses, with Babak, a 49-year-old Iranian product designer in Tehran, describing how his position was eliminated after the internet was shut down two weeks earlier at the outset of U.S.-Israeli war on the country.

“Fintech Gate: Manar Osama Oracle faced a wave of broad layoffs affecting between 20,000 and 30,000 employees, in one of the largest rounds of job cuts the company has carried out in recent times, where employees' services were terminated abruptly via email without direct prior notice”

Fintechgate

The New York Times reported that Babak was called into his boss’s office in mid-March and told his position was being eliminated, while he said, "Throughout my career, I have worked hard, continuously learned, and tried to grow."

Fintechgate

In a separate report, Etemaad newspaper said that in provinces such as Hamadan, Lorestan, Tehran, Ardabil, East Azerbaijan, and Khuzestan there have been reports of a sharp drop in Internet speed since the beginning of the week, and that even many circumvention tools (VPNs) are not connecting.

Etemaad, as reported by Zomit, also cited traffic-data analysis showing that starting Thursday, 11 Dey, concurrent with a noticeable drop in circumvention performance, there has been a meaningful drop in the country’s Internet traffic, with the drop peaking on Saturday and registering as much as a 35 percent decrease at certain times.

Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Seyed Sattar Hashemi, said in an interview that people have demands and protests, but there is serious concern about damage to businesses if the Internet is disrupted or cut, and he added that the fourteenth administration’s view is that people’s livelihoods and their peace of mind are the top priority.

Hashemi also said, "If we accept that people’s livelihoods are directly linked to the quality of communications and access to infrastructure, then special attention to this area becomes a clear obligation for us."

New York Times

In the same broader context of disruption, the Etemaad report described how Cloudflare’s dashboards showed traffic drops and how the pattern of disruptions has been observed across provinces including Hamadan, Lorestan, Tehran, Ardabil, East Azerbaijan, and Khuzestan, as well as Golestan, North Khorasan, Fars, Isfahan, and Yazd.

The Etemaad report further said that on Monday, Mehr News Agency reported that 51 MPs, in a note to the President and the ministers of Communications, Information, Defense, and Interior, emphasized the need for closer oversight of international messaging platforms in cyberspace.

More than 30 human rights and civil society organizations called for urgent global action in Iran to support protesters, detainees, human rights defenders, and to restore Internet access, warning that the crackdown is intensifying as the Internet is fully cut off.

“Layoffs in the United States rose in April, with hiring plans down, as artificial intelligence emerged as the biggest driver for companies to trim their workforce for the second consecutive month”

Aswaq lil-ma`lumaat

The Halous (Halush) Human Rights Organization reported on Thursday, 25 Dey, that in a joint statement the Narges Azadi Coalition and more than 30 organizations warned of serious threats to the lives and safety of those detained, especially human rights defenders, journalists, and people imprisoned for writing, speaking out, activism, or peaceful assembly.

The statement said, "Many families are living in complete ignorance of the fate of their disappeared loved ones," and it emphasized the Internet shutdown: "The disruption of communications not only blocks access to independent reporting".

It also warned that past experiences in Iran show that during periods of widespread unrest, abuse in detention centers has increased and the risk of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and other forms of ill-treatment particularly threatens those held in solitary confinement and in total ignorance.