Editorial Reel

⚠️ Overnight, Iran's traffic to Cloudflare twice fell 40% or more below normal within 15 minutes. Cloudflare Radar data: at 11:45 p.m. Tehran time on Monday, Sept. 28, Iran's traffic to Cloudflare fell 53% in 15 minutes. At 7 a.m. Tuesday it fell 40% again and held at that level for over two hours. Both times, traffic on every major network fell together: MCI, Irancell, TCI and Rightel. All of them reach the world through one gateway, a state monopoly. The internet did not go down. Both times, Google traffic from Iran, internet routes (IODA) and phone-browser traffic stayed normal, and both times it recovered within hours. Almost all of the drop was one kind of traffic, labelled "Windows Chrome" even on mobile networks: the default label of popular Xray-based VPN apps. VPNs may have been the target. The cause is still unclear. It has happened before: in early 2023 Iran blocked some Cloudflare addresses, knocking out VPNs that used them, and last January VPNs and mobile data were disrupted first, before the nationwide shutdown. The regime may be preparing a broad internet shutdown. Be ready: • Store water and canned food at home • Keep a first-aid kit and the medicines you need • Agree with your neighbours to check on each other • Write important phone numbers down on paper Data: Cloudflare Radar and IODA (Georgia Tech)#Iran #InternetFreedom #VPN #KeepItOn #ایران