Iranians are back online after a monthslong shutdown but face heavy restrictions

A woman checks her smartphone while sitting on a bench along a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. Vahid Salemi/AP hide caption toggle caption Vahid Salemi/AP CAIRO — Iranians began to regain internet access on Wednesday after authorities ended a monthslong shutdown. But users said service was slow and spotty in some areas, with apps like YouTube and Instagram heavily restricted, as they were before the cutoff began during nationwide protests in January. Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment's notice. Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran's connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%. Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. "It's too early to say the shutdown is over," he wrote on X. An unprecedented shutdown Iran's roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world's longest and strictest national shutdowns. …