Iran's Digital Divide: Iranians Without Internet Suffering From Isolation, Depression - Study

A stark reality is emerging from Iran, where a significant portion of the population is experiencing profound psychological distress due to severe internet restrictions. A new study by Filterbaan, an Iranian digital rights monitoring organization, highlights the deep-seated isolation and depression plaguing individuals confined to the Islamic regime's domestic websites. This "existential divide" is not merely an inconvenience; it is a source of anger, humiliation, and a growing mental health crisis.

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If this continues long-term, we will see a major wave of suicide and depression, and a large wave of migration.

The study, based on in-depth interviews, reveals how the lack of access to the global internet isolates Iranians from their families abroad, deprives them of entertainment, and cripples their ability to conduct essential educational research. Teenagers, in particular, lament the loss of the World Wide Web as a "space for inspiration and learning." The domestic applications available, such as Shad and Eitaa, are described as unstable, slow, and ineffective, forcing educators to rely on file-based teaching and limiting student interaction.

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a space for inspiration and learning.

Compounding these issues are the economic hardships faced by many Iranians. The soaring costs of VPNs, ranging from 150,000 to 3 million toman per gigabyte, place them out of reach for working-class households. This economic barrier transforms internet access from a right into a luxury, deepening the sense of "social injustice" and "violation of a natural right" among those unable to afford alternatives.

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I study architecture at a vocational high school, and I constantly need to search for things, but now I just can’t. Aparat has become so crowded that uploading anything there barely works. … We resisted for a long time against installing Iranian apps. Now we’ve installed Shad, Eitaa, and Baleh. We were forced to.

The pervasive self-censorship within domestic messaging apps is another alarming consequence. Respondents described a constant fear of monitoring, leading them to communicate in code and avoid sharing images. This environment stifles free expression and raises concerns that the next generation will never experience the concept of open communication. The study warns of a potential "major wave of suicide and depression, and a large wave of migration" if these conditions persist, painting a grim picture of the human cost of Iran's digital isolation.

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There is always a man in a suit reading what we say. We speak in code. We see each other more in person. We can’t send pictures because they see them.