: Tuesday, March 31, 2026 2:09 PM
Tehran. Internet is closed in Iran for more than 30 days. Iranians are using separate messaging apps to track air strikes and important updates. American media CNN reported that people of Iran are messaging or sharing information with each other through Telegram. Apart from this, Indonesian media outlets have reported that people of Iran are using Mahsa Alert app for airstrike and other important information. CNA said that thousands of people in Iran are using encrypted messaging app Telegram to share important information. On this, people are sharing information about where the air strikes took place, in which areas electricity was lost and how much damage was caused. Since there is no official warning system for an airstrike in Iran, its citizens are solving the problem themselves. Iranian citizens create their own crowdsourced air attack warning system.
According to Indonesia’s digital media portal VOI, when there was no official government system in Iran to provide public warnings related to military attacks or movements, a platform called Mahsa Alert emerged as an emergency solution.
Digital rights activists and volunteers from Iran have developed this app. The app is based on data collected from the public, social media and manual verification to map the locations of attacks and military activities.
Unlike the official military warning system, MHASA alerts are not completely real-time. However, this application also sends notifications when there is verified information related to attacks or threats.
Each data update is kept very small, averaging just 100KB, to ensure that users can access information even when connections are unstable or limited.
The Indonesian news portal reported that to maintain accurate information, the team behind Mahsa Alert performs thorough verification of data before displaying it. The attack locations marked as confirmed will have to undergo video or image-based investigation on social media.
Additionally, the application also contains additional information such as medical facility points, CCTV cameras and checkpoints suspected to be linked to the government. As of now, the development team is yet to verify more than 3,000 incoming reports.
According to Internet monitoring organization NetBlocks, Internet access in Iran is down to only about 1 percent of normal levels. This means that most people are not able to use the internet and the country is almost digitally cut off from the world.
An internet blackout has been in place since a series of joint military strikes carried out by the United States and Israel on February 28, 2026. The current situation has resulted in the longest digital shutdown in the country’s history, leaving nearly 90 million citizens almost completely cut off from the global community during a serious national crisis.
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