Key takeaways: Search Interest in Psiphon and Viva VPN is surging in Iran alongside terms like “VPN” and “filter breaker”, indicating people from the region are looking for reliable, private communication methods.
Iranians seem to be moving awa from standard VPNs, opting for obfuscating tools that work and that can bypass Deep Packet Inspection (DPI).
Google Trends queries reflect rapid growth over the past month, and SEO data showing the region’s dominance point to demand at scale.
Not all VPNs seem to be created equal, especially free ones. There are concerns over low-trust clones and invasive data collection, as well as over the potential of state-sponsored honeypots.
In most places, searching for a VPN is an easy bottom of the funnel activity: you search on whatever’s handy, jump to a quick comparison, then maybe download and perhaps even commit to a subscription. A regular day of online shopping.
In Iran right now, that process looks less like shopping and more like trying to secure basic infrastructure for survival. People there are trying to restore the basic ability to communicate, learn, work, and, crucially, publish and archive what’s going on.
Search interest for tools like Psiphon and Viva VPN spiked to unprecedented levels following a series of nation-wide connectivity disruptions that began in early 2026 leaving millions without the ability to communicate and exercise fundamental human rights.
Over the past month, Google Trends’ Rising queries in Iran show dramatic growth around terms linked to Psiphon and Viva VPN, alongside variations like “VPN,” “filter breaker,” and various localized spellings/transliterations (“Siphon”) despite great physical and digital risks associated with using such tools in the region at the moment.
5 Jan 2026 to 5 Jan 2026 Google Search Trends
This kind of spike doesn’t prove why people are searching. But it can be a reliable indicator of friction in access: when connections become unreliable, blocked, or unsafe, people search for alternatives that can help them do what they need, and they search fast. We’re effectively witnessing massive segments of the local population learn about things like network obfuscation, but rather by a necessity to byppas the Iranian digital Iron Curtain.
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