Iranian authorities have implemented an almost total internet blockade in a crackdown on widespread anti-government protests, but a small portion of the population is managing to communicate with the outside world via satellite.
Starlink, a division of Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, is playing a fundamental—and, in the view of foreign activists, crucial—role in connecting Iran to the rest of the world, as the country’s leadership resorts to force to try to suppress the protests.
Starlink provides high-speed internet access and can be used in many places where internet connections are hard to obtain, including rural areas and at sea. It has also been used in conflict zones. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, SpaceX made Starlink available in Ukraine, and it quickly became crucial for civilians and military personnel.
More than 2,600 people have been killed so far in the crackdown in Iran, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. NPR has not independently confirmed this number. There are some signs that the demonstrations are waning in Iran, with President Trump saying that the deaths seem to be coming to an end, while Iran suspends executions.
Activists say that many of the images and videos of the protests that have emerged since the blackout were transmitted via Starlink.
Farzaneh Badiei, an internet policy researcher who tracks Iran, said that Starlink plays an important role in keeping the outside world, as well as people inside Iran, informed.
“Every time the government blocked the internet, they killed many more people than when people had access to the internet and could report and livestream,” she said. “That’s why having access to an internet that cannot be blocked is a facilitator of human rights.”
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 stations to users with a Starlink receiver, or “antenna,” which is about the size of a computer monitor.
“The big advantage is that there’s no wire for the government to cut,” said Jonathan McDowell, 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 antennas, you don’t need to go through a local telecom provider.”
Although the Starlink satellite network forms a grid that covers most of the Earth, its use is not legal everywhere on the planet.
In 2022, SpaceX made its satellite internet service available to people in Iran. The Iranian leadership, which tightly controls the internet, reacted. Authorities tried to prevent Starlink use through regulation and legal actions against SpaceX. Last summer, the Iranian parliament criminalized Starlink use.
Despite this, 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, and traded on the black market.
He and other activists say that SpaceX appears to have enabled free access in the country, waiving the normal subscription fee. “We’re happy that this has happened and have confirmed it with users inside Iran,” Ahmadian said.
Neither SpaceX nor the White House confirmed this information to NPR. But the news comes after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump and Musk talked about the matter.
Ahmadian said that about half of the receivers in Iran were in use, though he expected more to be activated now that the service is free.
Critics, however, have long warned of the risks of relying on internet infrastructure controlled by a private company.
“It always worries me that this technology depends on the whims of an individual,” said Ahmadian. He said, however, that he did not consider it a big problem for Iranians at the moment, given U.S. political support for the protest movement.
In Iran, using Starlink devices carries substantial risks.
Human rights groups say the government has persecuted people who use these devices. Analysts and activists also say that authorities have jammed Starlink signals, with varying success.
“It seems like the jamming is happening neighborhood by neighborhood,” said Amir Rashidi, cybersecurity and public policy expert at the Miaan Group, a nongovernmental human rights organization. Rashidi said he has been in contact with people in Iran using 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 block Starlink,” he said.
Source: npr.org by John Ruwitch