French IT company Capgemini will sell its U.S. subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions, it said on Sunday, after coming under pressure to explain a contract the latter signed with U.S immigration enforcement agency ICE.
French lawmakers, including Finance Minister Roland Lescure, had asked the company to shed light on the contract amid concern over the tactics used by ICE agents following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota last month.
“Capgemini considered that the usual legal constraints imposed in the United States on contracting with federal entities conducting classified activities did not allow the Group to exercise appropriate control over certain aspects of this subsidiary’s operations in order to ensure alignment with the Group’s objectives,” it said in a statement.
CapGemini said the process of divestment would be “initiated immediately” but did not say whether the sale was due to CGS’ contract with ICE.
CGS accounts for 0.4% of Capgemini’s estimated revenue in 2025 and less than 2% of its revenue in the United States, the group said.
Capgemini CEO Aiman Ezzat had said last week that the company had recently become aware of the nature of a contract awarded to CGS by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement in December 2025.
However, Capgemini did not have access to any classified information, classified contracts, or anything relating to the technical operations of CGS, as required by U.S. security regulations related to government contracts, he said.
He added that the company would review the content and scope of this contract and CGS’ contracting procedures.
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Iran is now enduring the country’s longest and most comprehensive internet disruption on record. Its impact has stretched far beyond blocked platforms and loading screens, pushing many businesses to a point of no return.
Economists estimate Iran’s digital economy generates roughly 30 trillion rials (about $42 million) a day. While modest on paper, that figure represents the livelihoods of small and medium-sized enterprises that operate almost entirely online.
The Tehran Chamber of Commerce estimates that at least 500,000 Instagram-based shops operate in Iran, supporting around one million jobs whose sales effectively drop to zero without internet access.
The collapse began when the signal died
Industry data reviewed by trade groups show daily losses running into billions of rials, with the Chamber reporting revenue declines of 50% to 90%. But some analysts say even those figures understate the damage.
“Where does this figure even come from?” IT expert Amin Sabeti told Iran International. “These businesses operate on Instagram. When people have no access to Instagram, one hundred percent of their sales are gone.”
Sabeti said the lack of precise data had itself become part of the crisis. “What we do know is that Instagram and WhatsApp are widely used by small businesses, and many have now lost customers completely,” he added. “For some people, their entire livelihood depended on these platforms.”
In Iran, platforms such as Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp function not only as messaging tools but as storefronts, marketing channels and payment gateways.
Analysts estimate more than 40 million active users rely on them, making social media the backbone of e-commerce, especially for home-based businesses, informal retailers and women-led ventures.
“In many cases, people have gone bankrupt because they had issued cheques that can no longer be covered,” Sabeti said. “The reality is that a large portion of online businesses that relied heavily on Instagram have been wiped out.”
One Tehran-based online clothing seller told the news site Dideban Iran that her sales collapsed. After just one week of disruption, she laid off all her workers, shut down her workshop and sold her sewing machines. “I’m bankrupt,” she said.
Another online seller said most digital businesses lack the reserves to survive even days without revenue. “When the internet goes,” the seller said, “whatever tiny capital we have disappears.”
Iranian Online Shop Building Sealed As Hijab Tensions Rise
Silence from businesses
Iran International contacted several large and small online businesses to ask about the impact of the blackout. None replied. Messages were not even seen — an absence that spoke louder than any quote.
A few voices surfaced briefly on X. One user wrote that a friend who teaches languages online could no longer earn enough to cover monthly expenses. “Online business is not just online shops,” the post said. “Thousands of jobs depend on the internet, and they’ve been destroyed.”
Another described producers already weakened by months of economic pressure. “In our industrial area, someone with 15 years of production experience is renting out his workshop as a spare-parts warehouse,” the post read. “Last year we had 13 workers. Now we have three.”
Economists warn the damage will outlast restored connections. Prolonged shutdowns erode trust, deter investment and stall technological development. Many business owners say they have lost not only their capital but the will and the means to start again.
Women, who make up a significant share of Iran’s home-based digital workforce, are among the most exposed. For many, online trade was the only viable entry into the economy. With that channel severed, unemployment follows quietly.
“If this situation continues, it can really push the digital economy toward destruction,” said Reza Olfatnasab, head of the union of virtual businesses.
Crackdown On Online Businesses Intensifies In Iran
Numbers collide, blame follows
As businesses slipped into silence, the argument over numbers intensified.
Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi said recent outages were inflicting about 5,000 billion rials a day in direct losses on the core digital economy and nearly 50 trillion rials across the wider economy. Around 10 million people depend directly or indirectly on the sector, he said, adding that the average resilience of internet-based businesses is just 20 days.
The hardline daily Kayhan dismissed those estimates as “fabricated figures,” accusing the communications ministry of deflecting responsibility and arguing that officials who failed to build a “secure and lawful” network should be held accountable.
Industry bodies offered competing assessments. Analysts say the gap exposes a deeper problem than the shutdown itself: Iran lacks any transparent, standardized system to measure its digital economy.
For many business owners, however, the debate over billions has already arrived too late. Their screens are dark, their messages unread and their income, whatever the final number, already gone.
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