Factcheck Is Mohammad Amin Aghamiri's claim about the internet outage for several hours in "December 1404" true?

Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, the secretary of the Supreme Council of Virtual Space, has claimed that the complete shutdown of the Internet in January 1404 lasted only a few hours and the restrictions on other days were related to network management and limitation. However, the data of the international Internet monitoring organizations and the reports published at the same time indicate the almost complete loss of Iran's connection with the global Internet since January 18 and the continuation of this situation for several days.

According to Ambassador Arjan's report, Mohammad Amin Aghamiri's claim is raised while the available data indicates something else. Examining the evidence shows that in order to evaluate this claim, a distinction should be made between "complete disconnection of the global Internet", "restriction of access" and "remaining active of some internal services".

The first available data is Al-Jazeera's report, which, according to NetBlocks Internet monitoring, announced the nationwide blackout of the Internet in Iran on January 8, 2026, equal to December 18, 1404. This report mentioned the sharp drop in connection following the tightening of digital restrictions at the same time as the protests.

The evidence of the following days was also in line with this data, in such a way that on 24 January 1404, equal to 14 January 2026, this institution announced that the widespread interruption of communications entered the seventh day and passed the 144-hour mark.

Also, on 26 December 1404, equal to January 16, 2026, another report from NetBlocks announced the duration of the nationwide blackout for more than 180 hours.

28 December 1404, equivalent to January 18, 2026, NetBlocks announced the continuation of the disruption after 238 hours and the return of limited access to some services, including Google; A situation that was different from the normal and free connection to the global Internet.

This chronological sequence makes the claim of being definitively limited to a few hours seriously questionable.

traffic drop to near zero; A sign of widespread blackout

Technical reports published on December 18th did not just mention cross-platform disruption or slow internet. According to TechCrunch, data from several Internet infrastructure monitoring organizations, including NetBlocks, Cloudflare, and Georgia Tech University's Internet Outage Observatory, recorded a sudden drop in Iran's connectivity. Cloudfeller also stated that a very small portion of the traffic remained and the country was effectively cut off from the global Internet.

Also, Ambassador Arjan reported on January 12, 2026 that after the blackout started on January 8, Iran's Internet traffic had reached about 1% of the normal level.

These figures are important because there is a difference between "disruption of access to a service" and "almost complete collapse of international communications". When network traffic reaches about one percent of normal levels, describing the situation as typical throttling, without further technical explanation, does not provide a complete picture of what users experienced.

Does the activation of the National Information Network mean that the Internet is connected?

One of the axes of Aghamiri's statements is emphasizing the role of the national information network and the continuity of some internal services. He said that due to the existence of this network, card reader devices do not fail; While according to his claim, in France, when the internet was cut off, all the devices stopped working.

But the active national information network does not necessarily mean connecting to the global Internet. The national information network is the infrastructure for communication and service delivery within the country, while the global Internet provides the possibility of connecting to networks, websites and services outside the country.

As a result, some internal services such as banking systems, electronic payments and websites hosted within the country may still be active when international communications are interrupted or restricted; But users cannot access a large part of the global Internet.

Therefore, citing the activeness of the national information network or the continued operation of card reader devices alone cannot confirm the claim of establishing the Internet.

Finally, the claim that "the complete shutdown of the Internet took only a few hours" is not consistent with the published independent evidence about the global Internet blackout in January 1404.

The reports of NetBlocks, Cloudflare and media such as Reuters and TechCrunch tell about the sharp drop in Iran's communications since December 18 and the continuation of the near blackout situation for several days. The recording of more than 144, 180 and then 238 hours of blackout is inconsistent with the impression that the complete internet outage only lasted a few hours.