Despite public bluster from members of the IRGC and low-level officials, the internet blackout—imposed by the Supreme Security Council—is a far more revealing signal as to the regime’s confidence in its standing in the war against the US and Israel. The continued throttling of the internet, which risks at least ten million jobs and the broader health of the entire Iranian economy, indicates that the regime does not believe that the war is either finished or won. Like amputating a limb to combat gangrene, the dramatic countermeasures show that top Iranian decision-makers believe US economic pressure, evidenced in the ongoing currency collapse, is sufficiently destabilizing to require costly measures to prevent civil unrest from reorganizing.