Iran cutting off internet access to stop Israeli cyberattacks | The VergeSkip to main contentHamburger Navigation ButtonHamburger Navigation ButtonNavigation DrawerThe VergeThe Verge logo.Login / Sign UpcloseCloseSearchTechExpandReviewsExpandScienceExpandEntertainmentExpandCarsExpandVideosExpandPodcastsExpandNewslettersExpandSubscribeIran is going offline to prevent purported Israeli cyberattacksComments Drawer /Iran is going offline to prevent purported Israeli cyberattacksThe government has throttled its own bandwidth, asked citizens to delete WhatsApp, and plans to shut off global internet access tonight.The government has throttled its own bandwidth, asked citizens to delete WhatsApp, and plans to shut off global internet access tonight.by Jun 17, 2025, 11:14 PM UTCLinkFacebookThreadsImage: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesTina Nguyen is a senior reporter for The Verge, covering the Trump administration, Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government, and the tech industry’s embrace of the MAGA movement.In a purported attempt to limit Israel’s ability to wage cyberwarfare, Iran has begun throttling its civilians’ access to the internet and plans to disconnect entirely from the global internet by Tuesday night. Fateme Mohajerani, a government spokesperson, that the speed reduction was “temporary, targeted, and controlled, aimed at countering cyberattacks,” according to machine translation.The announcements come amidst the escalating war between Iran and Israel, which broke out after Israel attacked the country on June 12th, and a rise in reported internet outages. Civilians have claimed that they’ve been unable to access basic but critical telecommunications services, such as messaging apps, maps, and sometimes the internet itself. Cloudflare reported that two major Iranian cellular carriers effectively went offline on Tuesday, and that even VPNs, which Iranians frequently use to access banned sites like Facebook and Instagram, have become increasingly harder to access. Furthermore, the Iranian government is urging citizens to delete WhatsApp – one of the country’s most popular messaging platforms – claiming without any evidence that the Meta-owned app has been weaponized by Israel to spy on its users. (WhatsApp vehemently denied those claims .) Other reports indicate that Telegram, another messaging app popular in Iran, has been blocked as well.Israel’s role in the cyber outages has not been officially confirmed, but independent analysts at NetBlocks noticed originating from Iran on Tuesday, starting at 5:30 PM local time. According to Tasnim, a news network affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Iranians will still have access to the country’s state-operated national internet service, though two Iranian officials told the Times that the internal bandwidth could be reduced by up to 80 percent. Israel has experienced in cyberattacks since June 12th, according to the cybersecurity firm Radware, which attributes this to Iran’s own sophisticated state-sponsored hacking operations. National security experts that American companies may experience “spillover” from continued cyberwarfare, and that if the United States intervenes in the military conflict, Iranian hackers could begin attacking critical US infrastructure in retaliation. See More: Most PopularMost PopularInstallerA weekly newsletter by David Pierce designed to tell you everything you need to download, watch, read, listen to, and explore that fits in The Verge’s universe.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our and . 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All Rights Reserved, Iran is going offline to prevent purported Israeli cyberattacks. The government has throttled its own bandwidth, asked citizens to delete WhatsApp, and plans to shut off global internet access , The government of Iran appears to have shut down the internet within its borders, perhaps in response to Israel-linked cyberattacks. Internet watchers at CloudFlare and NetBlocks both report that internet traffic in Iran dropped precipitously late on Wednesday and has remained near zero since..