Iran’s Internet Blackout Raises An Existential Question: Have We Built a World That Can’t Function Offline?

When the Iranian government cut nearly all internet and mobile communication on the 8th January 2026, it didn’t just disrupt web pages and social feeds – it completely stopped the flow of information for some 90 million people, both within the country and internationally too.

What might once have seemed unthinkable is now a stark reality. Entire nations can be effectively cordoned off from the digital world with nothing more than a quick push of a big, red metaphorical button.

In Iran’s case, the shutdown came amid some of the largest anti-government protests in years, driven by economic despair, rising prices and calls for political change. Internet connectivity plunged to around 1 % of normal levels, according to groups monitoring the situation, making it one of the most severe blackouts in the country’s history.

And, there’s no doubt about the fact that the blackout served a clear political purpose. By cutting off communication, the authorities have restricted citizens’ ability to document violence, organise demonstrations and share real-time updates with the outside world. CPJ’s Regional Director Sara Qudah argues that this intentional restriction is “a blatant assault on press freedom”, effectively isolating Iran from global scrutiny and reducing the chance of independent reporting on protester deaths, arrests and injuries.

Satellite services like Elon Musk’s Starlink which have, in the past, people bypass restrictions amid political conflicts – from Ukraine to Sudan – have offered intermittent relief, but there are also reports of them having been targeted with sophisticated jamming and legal penalties under Iranian law, accoridng to Business Standard.

The message is clear: in the digital age, controlling the internet means controlling the narrative. So, what does this mean for everybody else?

Lessons from Syria: Connectivity, Conflict and Collapse

Iran isn’t the first country to weaponise the internet (nor will it be the last), and its blackout echoes similar episodes from other parts of the world. For instance, during the Syrian civil war in 2012 and subsequent years of conflict, connectivity often broke down – sometimes, this was a result of deliberate government or military action. Other times, it was due to infrastructure damage. In fact, in one widely cited incident, a vast portion of Syria’s networks disappeared overnight, a disruption that was initially attributed to internal controls but later linked to external interference.

Even outside moments of total outage, Syrian telecommunications infrastructure has struggled under the strain of war, neglect and destruction, particularly in areas beyond central government control. Networks have been damaged or looted, connectivity is frequently poor or intermittent, and many communities are forced to rely on alternative means of communication in the absence of stable internet.

What both Iran and Syria illustrate is a simple truth in our modern world: when connectivity collapses, the effects go far beyond social media silence. It isn’t about not being able to post a story on Instagram, losing the ability to check your emails or even not be able to check the news.

The reality is that without internet, people lose access to banking, emergency alerts, healthcare coordination, education and work.

In the past, Syrian internet shutdowns have been shown to undermine entire sectors, inflicting long-term damage that can be tough to recover from. Indeed, this is a stark illustration of just a few of the real-world costs of being cut off.

What Is the Real Cost of Going Dark?

Iran and Syria’s experiences raise a broader, more existential question for us all.

That is, what would happen if the internet disappeared? Not just for a few people, a town or even a city – not just parts of a nation, but for entire countries or regions?

Our modern world is intertwined with digital connectivity in ways that make full disconnection almost unimaginable.

Well, maybe it’s time to imagine.

A World Built On Fragile Convenience

In highly connected economies such as the United States, Germany the UK or China, among so many others, the internet underpins everything from banking to healthcare, logistics to government services. A prolonged outage would paralyse stock markets, interrupt supply chains, confuse emergency services and grind daily life to a standstill.

Cashless payments would falter without online verification, public transport systems would lose real-time scheduling and critical infrastructure monitoring would be hampered. Even basic communication – Whatsapp, SMS and voice services increasingly reliant on internet protocols – would be compromised if core networks failed.

Think of what it’s like to land in a foreign country and not have any service. You can’t call or message friends and family, you have no access to your banking apps and Google Maps is a no-go. It’s a feeling of isolation and helplessness, and you’re left to fend for yourself and, as my dad always says, “figure it out”.

However, as a lost and clumsy tourist, there’s an easy fix. Just buy a local SIM card or walk down the street to use Wi-Fi at the nearest coffee shop or McDonald’s.

But, when a government or another bureaucratic power decides to rescind people’s access to the internet, there’s no “what’s your Wi-Fi password?” kind of solution. You can’t contact friends or family, you wouldn’t be able to pay for anything (or check your bank balance), a huge number of people wouldn’t be able to work and access to healthcare and logistics would be incredibly challenging (if not possible).

For businesses, the impacts would be nothing short of existential. Data-driven decision making, cloud platforms and remote collaboration tools would vanish overnight. Startups dependent on digital customer acquisition, SaaS tools and global APIs would face existential crises. Investors would panic as valuations erode; not because of lost revenue, but because the infrastructure underlying commerce would have evaporated.

In Developing Countries, Challenges Would Be Exacerbated 

Now, in underdeveloped countries, the impact of an internet blackout would be layered on top of existing vulnerabilities. Many economies in Africa, South Asia and parts of Latin America already face unstable power grids and limited banking infrastructure, meaning that the removal of connectivity would sever access to crucial services like mobile money, telemedicine and educational resources. For many people, the internet isn’t a convenience – it’s the primary gateway to employment, social services and identity verification. It’s what allows them to function and keep moving forward on a daily basis

Syria’s long-term telecommunications struggles show that when connectivity degrades, everyday life becomes a negotiation with uncertainty – education and commerce retreat and humanitarian response suffers. In regions with limited offline alternatives, these degradations amplify inequality and erode citizens’ capacity to organise or advocate.

The poor and the voiceless (or rather, those with less capacity to be heard) fall deeper into poverty, with less hope and fewer options for improving their circumstances.

Dependence Vs. Resilience

Our dependence on connectivity reveals a stark paradox.

The internet brings unmistakable benefits – unprecedented access to information, economic opportunity and social connection.

At the same time, however, it introduces new fragilities. When it works, the system is seamless and empowering, but when it doesn’t, even basic human functions can be compromised.

In Iran, the blackout has been used as a tool of repression, hiding news and the circulation of discussion about violence and suppressing dissent. In other contexts, governments or authoritarian actors could potentially use similar tactics for political control.

The Syria example shows that even intermittent outages can degrade infrastructure and erode economic stability over time. And the most horrifying part that we need to wrap our heads around is the fact that this is not merely an abstract threat, as we once chose to believe. Rather, these are very real consequences of a world that often assumes constant connectivity as a given.

As we look to a future shaped by AI, cloud computing and increasingly networked infrastructure, the question becomes not just how to protect data privacy and freedom online, but how to build resilience for scenarios where connectivity falters or disappears.

Because, the fact of the matter is, the more we progress, innovate and advance, the more we intertwine modern technology into our daily live, the less independent we become, and the more vulnerable we are to losing our independence altogether.

Thus, modern tech allows us to create a world teeming with progress, connection and possibility, while simultaneously handing humanity the key to losing everything.

Kind of ironic, is it not?

The challenge ahead is to imagine and construct systems that function gracefully both with and without the internet.

That’s obviously not to say we should abandon the internet – of course not. But, perhaps it would be a good idea to at least have a contingency plan of sorts.

In contemplating a world without connection, we’re forced to confront a deeper truth: our dependence on the digital has become so fundamental that losing it wouldn’t just disrupt life – it could, and most likely would, reshape society itself.

So, what are we going to do about it?