Abbas Araghchi's Misleading Claim About Internet Shutdown in Iran
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, said on March 14, 2026, in an interview with CBS, in response to a question about internet shutdowns in Iran:
Margaret Brennan: Foreign Minister, we are running out of time, and I can see the internet is going in and out here. I just do want to point out you’re speaking to us via Zoom. The Iranian people don’t have open Internet access, but you do. Why?
Abbas Araghchi: Well, I’m the voice- because I’m the voice of Iranians, and I have to defend their right. So this is why I have access to internet to just, you know, have- have our voice being heard by the international community. But internet is closed because of the security reasons, because we are under the- under attack, we are under aggression, and we have to do everything to protect our people. In any country, there are, you know, urgent measures taken for this, for the sake of war.
This is not the first time officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran have framed internet shutdowns as normal. Similar claims have been made in the past to justify such measures, and Factnameh has previously examined them.
For example, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said in late 2020 that “in crises, the internet is shut down in many countries.” At the time, Factnameh assessed that this was a false claim.
This time, however, Iran’s foreign minister explicitly refers to wartime conditions, arguing that shutting down the internet is an emergency step that any country would take.
A review of publicly available sources shows that among 13 major wars and military conflicts since 2010, only three have involved nationwide internet shutdowns. Two of these are linked to Iran’s recent conflicts, including the 12-day war and the ongoing war involving Iran, the United States, and Israel. The other cases relate to the civil war in Sudan and the Tigray conflict involving Ethiopia and Eritrea, where shutdowns were imposed intermittently and in specific areas.
List of major wars and military conflicts since 2011:
Libyan Civil War (start date: 2011)
Syrian Civil War (start date: 2011)
Mali War, involving government and UN forces against jihadist groups AQIM and JNIM (start date: 2012)
Central African Republic Civil War (start date: 2012)
Yemeni Civil War (start date: 2014)
Crimea conflict between Russia and Ukraine (start date: 2014)
Tigray War between Ethiopia and Eritrea and Tigray forces (start date: 2020)
Russian invasion of Ukraine (start date: 2022)
Gaza War (start date: 2023)
Sudanese Civil War (start date: 2023)
Twelve-Day War between Iran and Israel (2025)
Iran–US–Israel war (2026)
There have been no reports of deliberate nationwide internet shutdowns justified on security grounds during the Russia–Ukraine war, the Israel–Hamas war, the Syrian civil war, or the conflicts in Libya and Yemen. The only wartime shutdowns identified are those in Iran’s recent conflicts and in parts of Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea.
These findings suggest that nationwide internet shutdowns during wartime are not common.
Data from the Internet Society, which has tracked internet shutdowns globally since 2019, reinforces this conclusion. It shows that the scale and method of shutdowns seen in Iran are unusual.
Since 2019, the organization has recorded 924 shutdowns across 61 countries. In about two-thirds of cases, the disruptions were limited to specific regions. In 306 cases, the shutdowns were nationwide. Of these, 196 were linked to national exams aimed at preventing cheating, 35 had unclear causes, and 75 were politically motivated.
Among the politically motivated cases, 38 were tied to public protests. In 13 cases, shutdowns occurred during elections, and in 8 during coups. The reason remains unclear in 9 cases. Only 7 shutdowns were directly linked to war. Of these, 3 occurred during the Sudanese civil war, 1 in Yemen, 1 in Gabon, and 2 in Iran during the June 2025 12-day war and the ongoing conflict in March 2026.
The full dataset is available here: https://infogram.com/fc-internet-shutdown-1h7v4pdvmd51j4k
Taken together, the evidence shows that shutting down the internet during war or political unrest is neither common nor widespread globally. Instead, it is more often observed in a limited number of countries, including some in Africa and states such as Yemen, Sudan, and the Islamic Republic of Iran that are experiencing conflict or internal instability.