Iran's Stealth Internet Blackout: A New Model of Censorship
Arash Aryapour
TL;DR
This paper investigates Iran's 2025 stealth internet blackout, revealing a sophisticated censorship infrastructure that isolates users while maintaining global routing, with significant impacts on VPN demand and digital rights.
Contribution
It introduces a new model of censorship involving deep packet inspection and protocol manipulation, with detailed analysis of active measurements and infrastructure.
Findings
707% increase in VPN demand during shutdown
Censorship involves deep packet inspection and protocol whitelisting
Infrastructure traced to a centralized border gateway
Abstract
In mid-2025, Iran experienced a novel, stealthy Internet shutdown that preserved global routing presence while isolating domestic users through deep packet inspection, aggressive throttling, and selective protocol blocking. This paper analyzes active network measurements such as DNS poisoning, HTTP injection, TLS interception, and protocol whitelisting, traced to a centralized border gateway. We quantify an approximate 707 percent rise in VPN demand and describe the multi-layered censorship infrastructure, highlighting implications for circumvention and digital rights monitoring.
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