# Sustained censorship in IQ (2026-02)

**Country:** 🇮🇶 Iraq (IQ)
**Date:** 2026-02-08
**Type:** Censorship
**Severity:** CRITICAL
**Status:** confirmed

## Summary

OONI detected 11 days of elevated network interference averaging 74.0% anomaly rate.

## Metrics

- Confidence: 80%
- Measurements: 11
- Anomaly Rate: 74.0%

## Evidence

- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_invalid_request_line: 2/4 measurements anomalous (50.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-02-28
  - Confidence: 70%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=IQ&test_name=http_invalid_request_line&since=2026-02-28&until=2026-03-01&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_invalid_request_line: 4/7 measurements anomalous (57.1%)
  - Observed: 2026-02-28
  - Confidence: 73%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=IQ&test_name=http_invalid_request_line&since=2026-02-28&until=2026-03-01&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_header_field_manipulation: 4/7 measurements anomalous (57.1%)
  - Observed: 2026-02-28
  - Confidence: 73%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=IQ&test_name=http_header_field_manipulation&since=2026-02-28&until=2026-03-01&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_invalid_request_line: 5/10 measurements anomalous (50.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-02-28
  - Confidence: 70%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=IQ&test_name=http_invalid_request_line&since=2026-02-28&until=2026-03-01&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI http_header_field_manipulation: 5/10 measurements anomalous (50.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-02-28
  - Confidence: 70%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=IQ&test_name=http_header_field_manipulation&since=2026-02-28&until=2026-03-01&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI signal: 1/1 measurements anomalous (100.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-02-20
  - Confidence: 90%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=IQ&test_name=signal&since=2026-02-20&until=2026-02-21&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI whatsapp: 1/1 measurements anomalous (100.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-02-20
  - Confidence: 90%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=IQ&test_name=whatsapp&since=2026-02-20&until=2026-02-21&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI telegram: 1/1 measurements anomalous (100.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-02-09
  - Confidence: 90%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=IQ&test_name=telegram&since=2026-02-09&until=2026-02-10&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI facebook_messenger: 1/2 measurements anomalous (50.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-02-09
  - Confidence: 70%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=IQ&test_name=facebook_messenger&since=2026-02-09&until=2026-02-10&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI signal: 1/1 measurements anomalous (100.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-02-08
  - Confidence: 90%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=IQ&test_name=signal&since=2026-02-08&until=2026-02-09&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): OONI telegram: 1/1 measurements anomalous (100.0%)
  - Observed: 2026-02-08
  - Confidence: 90%
  - [OONI Explorer (independently verifiable)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=IQ&test_name=telegram&since=2026-02-08&until=2026-02-09&only=anomalies)

## What we cannot say

- **Who caused it** — measurement data alone does not attribute the interference to any government, ISP, or other actor.
- **Intent** — anomalous or unreachable measurements indicate interference, not a stated motive or a deliberate-vs-incidental determination.
- **Which networks** — no specific ASN/ISP is identified for this incident.
- **The mechanism** — we cannot state whether this was DNS tampering, TLS/SNI reset, HTTP blockpage, throttling, or an infrastructure outage.
- **Sub-national scope** — measurement is aggregated at the country level; we cannot localize to a province, city, or network segment.
- **Independent corroboration** — this rests on a single source; treat it as a single-source signal, not a multi-source confirmation.

## Data Sources

ooni

## Citation

Voidly Research. (2026). Sustained censorship in IQ (2026-02) [IQ-2026-0199]. Retrieved from https://voidly.ai/incident/IQ-2026-0199

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*Report generated by Voidly Research on 2026-08-06*
*Data licensed under CC BY 4.0*
*Incident ID: IQ-2026-0199*
*Permalink: https://voidly.ai/incident/IQ-2026-0199*