By Kian Sharifi

Iranians are living through one of the longest Internet shutdowns in history, with the authorities imposing a digital blackout since launching a bloody crackdown on antiestablishment protesters on January 8.

While the authorities have quelled the weekslong demonstrations against Iran’s clerical rulers with the use of unprecedented brute force, it remains unclear when they will restore access to the Internet.

Even when services resume, Iranians could be permanently cut off from the global Internet as the authorities force its citizens to use a domestically designed “intranet,” which works independently from the world’s Internet, digital experts warn.

NetBlocks, an Internet monitoring organization, said on January 20 that a review of traffic from some restricted services and platforms suggests the government may be experimentally moving toward “whitelist-based........

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