Iranian authorities have implemented an almost total internet shutdown in a crackdown on widespread anti-government protests, but a small portion of the population is maintaining contact with the outside world via satellite.
Starlink, a division of Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, is playing a disproportionate—and, in the eyes of activists abroad, crucial—role in connecting Iran to the rest of the world, as the country’s leadership resorts to force to try to smother the protests.
Starlink provides high-speed internet access and can be used in many places where internet connections are hard to get, including rural areas and at sea. It has also been used in conflict zones before. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, SpaceX made Starlink available in Ukraine, and it quickly became crucial for civilians and the military.
More than 2,600 people have been killed so far in Iran’s crackdown, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. NPR has not independently confirmed this figure. There are some signs that the demonstrations are waning in Iran, with President Trump saying the deaths appear to be ending, as Iran cancels executions.
Activists say many of the images and videos of protests that have emerged since the blackout came via Starlink.
Farzaneh Badiei, an internet policy researcher who tracks Iran, said it plays an important role in keeping the outside world, as well as people inside Iran, informed.
“Every time the government shuts down the internet, they kill many more people than when people have access to the internet and can report and livestream,” she said. “That’s why having access to an internet that can’t be shut down is a human rights enabler.”
With about 9,500 satellites in low Earth orbit, the Starlink constellation makes up about two-thirds of all active satellites around Earth. The satellites relay internet from ground-based stations to users with a Starlink receiver, or “dish,” the size of a computer monitor.
“The big advantage is there’s no wire for the government to cut,” said Jonathan McDowell, a satellite expert at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. “It’s very hard to censor because the signal comes from the sky, and so if you have one of those dishes, you don’t need to go through a local telecom provider.”
Although Starlink’s satellite network forms a mesh that covers most of Earth, it is not legal to use it everywhere on the planet.
In 2022, SpaceX made its satellite internet service available for the first time to people in Iran. Iran’s leadership, which tightly controls the internet, reacted. Authorities tried to stifle Starlink use through regulation and legal protests against SpaceX. Last summer, Iran’s parliament criminalized Starlink use.
Even so, the number of receivers in the country has grown, according to activists.
Ahmad Ahmadian, executive director of the nonprofit Holistic Resilience, which helps Iranians circumvent internet censorship, estimated that about 50,000 units are in the country. They are bought abroad, smuggled in, and sold on the black market.
He and other activists say SpaceX appears to have made access free in the country, waiving the normal subscription fee. “We’re happy this has happened, and we’ve confirmed it with users inside Iran,” Ahmadian said.
Neither SpaceX nor the White House has confirmed this to NPR. But the news comes after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and Musk talked about the matter.
Ahmadian said about half of the receivers in Iran were in use, though he expected more to come online now that the service is free.
Critics, however, have long warned of the risks they see in relying on internet infrastructure controlled by a private company.
“I’m always worried that this technology depends on the whims of an individual,” Ahmadian said. He said, however, that he didn’t think it was a major issue for Iranians at the moment, given U.S. political support for the protest movement.
In Iran, using Starlink devices carries substantial risk.
Human rights groups said the government has been hunting people who use these devices. Analysts and activists also say authorities have jammed Starlink signals, with mixed success.
“It seems like [the jamming] is neighborhood by neighborhood,” said Amir Rashidi, cybersecurity and policy expert at the Miaan Group, a nongovernmental human rights organization. Rashidi said he has been talking to people on the ground in Iran who use Starlink and believes its use cannot be suppressed.
“They don’t have—I think we should say, thank God—they don’t have the technology to stop a Starlink,” he said.
Fonte: npr.org por John Ruwitch