Iran’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology reported that a fire broke out at the main telecommunications building in Tehran today, causing disruptions to internet services, and that the fire was caused by a failure of electrical connections.
Ministry spokesman Mehdi Salem said on Twitter that today’s internet outage in parts of Tehran and the city of Kerec was caused by an electrical fault that caused a fire at the center and that the problem was quickly corrected, Reuters reported.
Iran imposes one of the strictest internet restrictions in the world. But bans on US-based social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, are often instilled by Iranians with knowledge of VPNs.
A new draft law introduced to parliament last month would increase the government’s restrictions on the internet if approved.
