The Iranian authorities, which have shut down the internet due to mass protests in the country, are also seeking to restrict access to Starlink. To do this, they are using military-grade jamming equipment that has managed to disrupt up to 80% of traffic from satellites.
The Iranian authorities, which have shut down the internet due to mass protests in the country, are also seeking to restrict access to Starlink. To do this, they are using military-grade jamming equipment that has managed to disrupt up to 80% of traffic from satellites.
This could significantly worsen the situation for protesters and anti-government activists when the internal Internet is shut down, Forbes reports.
It is noted that «tens of thousands of Starlink devices are operating in Iran». The outage also affected satellite communications. Iranian media reported that initially «about 30% of Starlink traffic to and from the satellite was disrupted,» but within a few hours this figure quickly increased «to over 80%».
The Iranian government has never authorized Starlink, making it illegal to use Elon Musk’s satellite internet service in the country. However, the number of Starlink users in Iran has increased since past protests in 2022.
Starlink terminals use GPS to connect to satellites, but the Iranian military has been jamming GPS signals, leading to patchy Starlink coverage, including near-total blackouts in some key areas.
New protests in Iran in 2018 were triggered by the catastrophic fall of the rial (1.45 million to the dollar by December 2025), high inflation, and intensifying economic pressure, including the 12-day war with Israel and the renewal of UN sanctions.
Due to mass protests , the Iranian authorities have begun deliberately blocking mobile networks and providers. They are seeking to disrupt coordination between protesters inside the country and stop the flow of video evidence of violence by security forces outside. More than 100 people are currently known to have died as a result of the protests. According to other estimates, their number has exceeded 500.
