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Iranians are leaving the country just to access the internet

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Iranians are leaving the country just to access the internet VAN, Turkey — Dazed by the sun and tired by more than a dozen hours of travel by bus, the woman from Tehran, Iran's capital, crossed into eastern Turkey. Her first stop? Somewhere with Wi-Fi. "I only want to make a video call and go back [to Iran.] That is it," she told NPR. For the last month, she has been making the hours-long drive to...
This report presents a stark illustration of digital authoritarianism, where a state weaponizes internet control to suppress information and dissent. The strongest version of this narrative highlights the human cost: families separated, businesses collapsing, and citizens risking arrest simply to communicate. The pattern of centralized internet chokepoints, modeled after China’s censorship, reflects a deliberate strategy to isolate populations during crises. However, the framing leans heavily on...