A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
People in Iran are back online after a three-month internet blackout. Iran's government cut off internet access soon after the U.S. and Israel launched their war. NPR's Arezou Rezvani spoke with Iranians who have emerged from digital darkness. They all requested anonymity for fear of government retaliation.
AREZOU REZVANI, BYLINE: Many Iranians can finally share what the worst days of the war were like for them. For one 23-year-old graduate student in Tehran, the U.S.-Israeli strikes were terrifying, but the government's internet blackout made it even worse.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: (Through interpreter) We had no sense of where they were going to hit. We weren't getting any alerts the U.S. or Israel were posting online. And when we turned on the TV, state channels were all rah-rah, focused on targets hit in Israel or the Emirates. There was little acknowledgment of what was getting hit inside Iran.
REZVANI: All these months later, getting back online hasn't brought the relief she was expecting.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: (Through interpreter) We are just now starting to realize how many people have been detained and executed.
REZVANI: Soon after Iran hit the internet's kill switch, security forces unleashed a sweeping internal crackdown. More than 6,000 people have been arrested on vague treason and espionage charges. Several dozen have been executed. These tallies from human rights organizations are only now circulating inside Iran. It's why many say reconnecting to the internet, which is still censored and unstable, has been bittersweet.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: (Through interpreter) When we needed it, it wasn't there. And now that we have it, it feels like we're a thousand years behind.
REZVANI: Life without the internet was especially rough for one 29-year-old content creator in Tehran. Her social media gigs dried up. She started running out of money.
UNIDENTIFIED CONTENT CREATOR: (Non-English language spoken).
REZVANI: To get by, she says she sold off her home appliances, gold jewelry, signed copies of her favorite books. She's relieved to be working again now that the internet is back but crushed to learn about what is and isn't included in the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.
UNIDENTIFIED CONTENT CREATOR: (Through interpreter) There's been no mention of how the regime is killing us right now as we speak, in prison executions or through mass unemployment from the long internet blackout. No one is talking about us.
REZVANI: Iran was losing some $30 million a day from the digital blackout, according to Iran's chamber of commerce. Digital experts believe that's ultimately why the government restored the internet - not so much to save people, but to save itself.
Arezou Rezvani, NPR News.
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