Iran’s sweeping internet shutdown crossed into unprecedented territory March 20, stretching into its fourth week and surpassing the country’s previous record set in January. The milestone arrives with little relief in sight for ordinary Iranians, with experts seeing a connectivity crunch that could last indefinitely.

The picture is bleak: Nearly all of Iran’s roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the global internet after authorities pulled the plug within hours after US-Israeli airstrikes began Feb. 28. “We’re currently in the longest shutdown in the history of Iran,” Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at network monitoring firm Kentik, told Al-Monitor.

While January’s blackout began easing after about 10 days, the current lockdown has kept roughly 99% of the population almost completely offline since the start. But beneath that near-total communications cut lies a more complicated reality, one defined by adaptation, loopholes and a constant struggle between users seeking access and authorities trying to seal it.

The result is not a simple on-off switch but a layered system of control. Since January, Iran has shifted from blocking individual sites to enforcing what is being dubbed a “whitelisted” internet — allowing access only to approved services while walling off the broader web. This has effectively created a two-tier national system that bans access to the global internet for the general population.