BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA
Iranian protesters struggling to get word of a brutal nationwide crackdown to the outside world have received a major boost after SpaceX quietly removed fees for its Starlink satellite internet service inside Iran, activists said Wednesday, dramatically expanding access to one of the few remaining channels capable of bypassing the government’s communications blackout.
The move comes after Iranian authorities imposed their most sweeping shutdown of telecommunications and internet access to date, cutting off nearly all connectivity for the country’s 85 million people on Jan. 8 as protests spread over economic collapse, runaway inflation and a rapidly devaluing currency. Activists say the blackout was designed to prevent images, videos and eyewitness accounts of the crackdown from reaching the international community.
SpaceX, the U.S. aerospace company led by Elon Musk, has not publicly announced the change and did not respond to requests for comment. However, activists involved in digital freedom efforts said Starlink service became free for users inside Iran beginning Tuesday, provided they already had the necessary satellite receivers. They also said the company pushed a firmware update to Starlink terminals that helps counter Iranian efforts to jam satellite signals and disrupt GPS functionality.
The reported move followed comments by President Donald Trump, who said earlier this week that he intended to contact Musk to request Starlink support for Iranian protesters. The White House later confirmed that outreach had taken place, though it remains unclear whether that conversation directly prompted SpaceX’s actions.
For activists, the impact has been immediate and profound. Mehdi Yahyanejad, an Iranian-American technologist whose nonprofit organization Net Freedom Pioneers has helped smuggle Starlink terminals into Iran, said the service has played a critical role in exposing the scale of violence.
“Starlink has been crucial,” Yahyanejad said in an interview from Los Angeles. He pointed to footage that surfaced over the weekend showing rows of bodies laid out at a forensic medical center near Tehran. “That video showed hundreds of bodies on the ground. It came out because of Starlink,” he said. “It changed how people understood what’s happening, because they could see it with their own eyes.”
Since protests erupted on Dec. 28, the death toll has climbed to more than 2,500 people, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Most of the dead are demonstrators, though security personnel have also been killed in clashes.
Starlink operates in legal limbo inside Iran. The government has never authorized the import, sale or use of the satellite terminals, making them illegal under Iranian telecommunications law. Activists using the service risk being accused of cooperating with foreign powers such as the United States or Israel, charges that can lead to severe prison sentences or even the death penalty under Iran’s espionage laws.
Despite those risks, the number of Starlink units inside Iran has steadily grown. The first terminals were smuggled into the country in 2022 during protests over mandatory headscarf laws, after Musk persuaded U.S. officials to exempt the service from sanctions restrictions. Since then, activists estimate that more than 50,000 units have been clandestinely brought into Iran.
Operating the equipment requires extreme caution. Starlink terminals rely on a clear line of sight to satellites orbiting Earth, meaning antennas must be placed outdoors where they could be detected. To avoid discovery, many users disguise the flat dishes as solar panels or hide them on rooftops, said Ahmad Ahmadian, executive director of Holistic Resilience, a Los Angeles–based group involved in early Starlink deployments in Iran.
Authorities, meanwhile, have intensified efforts to track down users. Security forces are believed to rely on informants, raids on apartments suspected of hosting satellite equipment, and monitoring of online activity for signs that Starlink has been used. Iranian technicians have also attempted to jam Starlink’s radio signals and interfere with its GPS systems, particularly after previous communication shutdowns proved only partially effective.
“There has always been a cat-and-mouse game,” said Ahmadian, who left Iran in 2012 after serving a prison sentence for student activism. “The government is using every tool in its toolbox.”
According to Ahmadian, recent jamming attempts have been more aggressive than those used during the brief war with Israel in June, when Iran also tried to suppress communications. After activists reported the disruptions to SpaceX, he said, the company responded by issuing a software update that allowed terminals to evade some of the interference. Even so, the jamming appears to be concentrated in certain urban areas, suggesting the government lacks the capacity to block Starlink nationwide.
The decision to make Starlink free inside Iran could significantly increase the volume of information flowing out of the country. Although Iranian authorities partially restored outbound international phone calls on Tuesday, incoming calls remain blocked, and internet access is still heavily restricted. Compared with protests in 2019, when the government was able to largely silence communications for more than a week, activists say the widespread presence of satellite internet has fundamentally altered the landscape.
“This time they really shut everything down, even fixed landlines,” Ahmadian said. “But despite that, information was still coming out. That shows how distributed and resilient the Starlink user network has become.”
Musk has previously made Starlink available for free or at reduced cost during natural disasters, and the service has played a central role in Ukraine’s communications infrastructure since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, initially funded by SpaceX and later through U.S. government contracts. Musk’s influence over the system has also raised concerns, particularly after he declined to extend coverage to support a Ukrainian military operation in Russian-occupied Crimea.
For some activists, that episode highlighted the risks of relying on a single private company for such a critical lifeline. Still, Ahmadian said he sees little reason to believe Musk would curtail Starlink access in Iran. He suggested that Musk’s political views and business interests align more closely with the prospect of a future, open Iranian market.
The situation in Iran is now being closely watched by governments and activists worldwide. Starlink has rapidly expanded in recent years and holds licenses in more than 120 countries, including several ruled by authoritarian governments with a history of suppressing dissent.
Julia Voo, who leads the Cyber Power and Future Conflict Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore, said Starlink’s effectiveness in Iran underscores both its power and its vulnerabilities.
“Reliance on one company creates a single point of failure,” Voo said. “But there are currently no comparable alternatives.”
She warned that as Starlink proves its ability to pierce government-imposed internet blackouts, states are likely to respond by expanding their control over communications or exploring more aggressive countermeasures. China, for example, has openly studied ways to track or disable Starlink satellites.
“The more effective Starlink becomes,” Voo said, “the more governments will be watching and adapting. What’s happening in Iran won’t stay isolated. It’s a preview of future battles over information and control, everywhere.”
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