Iran's 'Barracks Internet' Tests a New Model for Digital Authoritarianism

The current internet shutdown in Iran has entered its 16th day, but the prolonged blackout is merely a live test for something far more permanent. Following a repressive crackdown on protests, the Iranian government is building what it calls "Barracks Internet"—a system designed to grant global web access only through a strict security whitelist, while locking approximately 85 million citizens inside a state-controlled intranet.

Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani has confirmed that international access will not be restored until at least late March, with Filterwatch—a Texas-based organization monitoring Iranian internet censorship—citing government sources who say access will "never return to its previous form." This marks a significant evolution in digital authoritarianism: while other nations built walls before their populations went online, Iran is attempting to seal off an already-connected economy in freefall.

The architecture of this two-tier system has been quietly developing for years. Since at least 2013, the regime has issued "white SIM cards" to approximately 16,000 people, granting them unrestricted global internet access. The system gained public attention in November 2025 when X's location feature revealed that certain accounts, including the communications minister, were connecting directly from inside Iran—despite X being blocked since 2009.

What's different now is scale and permanence. The current blackout tests infrastructure designed to make two-tier access the default, not a temporary measure. "The regime is terrified of one thing: Iranians being heard telling their own truth and having crimes documented," says Mahsa Alimardani, a digital rights researcher at U.S.-based Witness, which trains activists to use video for advocacy. "The question becomes: How do we give Iranians an unbreakable voice?"

Few nations have attempted to wall off their citizens from the global internet. North Korea's Kwangmyong intranet was built from scratch for a population that never had connectivity. China constructed its Great Firewall over two decades while nurturing domestic alternatives like WeChat and Alibaba. Iran is attempting to do both in weeks, with no viable domestic alternatives ready.

The economic costs are staggering. Iran's deputy communications minister pegged daily losses at up to $4.3 million, while NetBlocks estimates the true cost exceeds $37 million daily. More than 10 million Iranians depend directly on digital platforms for their livelihoods. Tipax, one of Iran's largest private delivery companies handling about 320,000 daily shipments before the protests, now processes fewer than a few hundred, according to Filterwatch. The company operates a nationwide logistics network comparable to FedEx in the U.S. market.

The government has shown it's serious about enforcement. Irancell, the country's second-largest mobile operator with 66 million subscribers, fired its CEO, Alireza Rafiei, for disobeying orders on "restriction of internet access in crisis situations." The company is partly owned by South Africa's MTN Group, and foreign telecom partners have reportedly left Iran in recent days under security escort, without media coverage. This may signal the end of international cooperation in critical infrastructure, replaced by the Revolutionary Guard's construction arm or limited cooperation with Huawei.

Technical experts doubt the regime can sustain Barracks Internet without crippling the economy. Georgia Tech's Internet Intelligence Lab, which has tracked Iran's shutdowns since the Arab Spring, called the blackout "the most sophisticated and most severe in Iran's history." Its measurements show about 3% connectivity persists, likely limited to government officials and state services.

Kaveh Ranjbar, former chief technology officer at RIPE NCC—the body managing European internet infrastructure—calls the plan a "digital airlock" that can't fully seal a modern economy. "No country has hermetically sealed a functioning digital economy," he told The New Arab.

Meanwhile, activists have smuggled an estimated 50,000 Starlink satellite terminals into Iran since 2022, when the Biden administration exempted the service from sanctions. SpaceX has made the service free for Iranian users. The government claims it cut off 40,000 Starlink connections and jammed some terminals during the blackout, though others remain operational after firmware updates to bypass government blocking. Still, the technology remains vulnerable to signal jamming, meaning the regime holds ultimate leverage.

"We need to revolutionize access to the internet," says Alimardani. "And move beyond the limiting structures and norms of 'internet sovereignty.'" The Iranian experiment represents a new frontier in digital control—one that balances the economic necessity of connectivity with the political imperative of surveillance and restriction. Whether it can succeed remains an open question, but the attempt itself reshapes the landscape of digital authoritarianism for already-connected populations.