Cloudflare website’s report of the world’s most popular internet services in 2022 shows that more than half of these popular websites are out of reach of Iranian users. According to this report, out of the 13 most visited sites in the world, 6 of them are filtered and some others do not provide services to Iranian users due to sanctions. This report also shows that half of the popular social networks in the world are also filtered in Iran.
According to Digiato and quoting the annual report of Radar Cloudfeller, Iranian users cannot deal with more than half of the world’s most visited websites; At least without using filtering tools and circumventing sanctions. Other reports from reliable global sources also provide almost the same statistics, which show that half of the popular Internet services and websites in the world are not available for Iranian users.
Cloudflare’s report shows that the most visited internet services in the world are as follows:
- Apple and Tik Tok (jointly third)
- YouTube
- Microsoft
- Amazon services
- Amazon
- Netflix, Twitter, Yahoo and iCloud
Among the services mentioned in Cloudflare’s list, Amazon and Amazon services are also out of reach of Iranian users, and things like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Netflix, etc. are also filtered in Iran. Among these filtered websites, there have been whispers of a YouTube reopening in the past few months, which seems to be off the agenda for now. Also, in the previous government, attempts were made to remove Twitter’s filter by the Ministry of Communications, but they did not succeed.
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in Iran were completely filtered in 2008. Tik Tok has been out of reach of Iranian users since 2018, and although its filtering was never officially announced, it seems that both sanctions and blocking were done simultaneously. Netflix was also filtered at the very beginning of its launch in January 2014. Netflix had announced at that time that it plans to expand its service in 130 countries of the world including Iran, but with its filtering, the hands of users to this popular global streaming service were cut short.
Shopping from the Amazon website is also not possible due to various reasons, including the lack of access of users to global accounts, etc., and this group has been fined for violating sanctions against Iran in the past years, and therefore imposed stricter sanctions on Iranian users in the past years. has recently
Needless to say, among the other names on this list, Google has also been blocked several times in Iran. For example, in September 2006, this website and its services were filtered in Iran for a period of time, and in the summer of last year, this website suffered severe disturbances. The Microsoft website was also temporarily unavailable in the fall of 1401 and after a few weeks, the filter was removed.
Yahoo blogs, which were known as Yahoo 360 in Iran and were once very popular among users, were filtered in 2005 and this service itself was temporarily blocked in 2010.
Half of the popular social networks in the world are filtered in Iran
Cloudfeller’s report also mentions popular social networks in the world, whose names are as follows:
- TIC Tac
- snapchat
- Discord
- Kwai
Among the names of this section, the first five popular sites in the world have been filtered in Iran. The LinkedIn service was also temporarily filtered in the fall of last year and was removed after a few weeks. The Discord service has been filtered many times in Iran. The Reddit website was also filtered in Iran for several years and was unfiltered in 2016, but it was filtered again in March of last year. It should be said that Reddit is a website for collecting news and a large community where users can discuss and exchange opinions on any topic and share various news and links. Pinterest also became available in 2016 after being filtered for years and has not been blocked again until today. Kwai social network is also a platform similar to Tik Tok and belongs to China.
The first ones that are not available
Looking at the popular firsts in other sectors introduced in Cloudfeller’s report, we will also find out that in most sectors, the most popular Internet services in Iran are either filtered or out of reach of users; For example, in the news section of the BBC website, in the financial services section, PayPal, and in the virtual currency section, Binance, all are either filters or do not provide services to Iranian users. Even in the field of gaming, the Roblox website, which was the most popular in 2022, will not be available for Iranian users without using a filter breaker.
According to Cloudflare’s report, the most topics that internet websites are active in and that users are looking for; It goes back to the field of technology and after that topics such as economy and online shopping and lifestyle and social networks are among the users’ options. Things like real estate, weather and religious sites also had the least number of visitors in the world last year.
