Iran is experiencing its longest internet blackout on record—over two months—leaving millions cut off from the global web and costing the economy an estimated $1.8 billion. While ordinary citizens struggle to afford black-market VPNs costing a significant portion of their monthly wages, a privileged elite operates under "Internet Pro": a whitelist system granting unrestricted access to select professionals, businesses, and regime insiders through "white SIM cards."
The program, launched by the IRGC-linked Mobile Communications Company of Iran (MCI), has triggered rare public fissures within the regime. President Masoud Pezeshkian's government has openly condemned the tiered system as unfair and invalid, while hardliners defend it as a crisis measure for "critical professions." Meanwhile, labor unions, lawyers, and even the Iranian Psychiatric Association have rejected the policy, warning it deepens inequality, erodes public trust, and inflicts psychological harm. As SIM cards leak onto the black market for profiteering, the digital divide is exposing cracks in a regime desperate to project unity against the U.S. and Israel.
