With anti-government protests taking place in Iran for the third week in Iran, it is reported that the Iranian authorities made a significant move to block communications by jamming the Starlink satellite internet by Elon Musk.
This has rendered the majority of the country offline and lost one of the remaining avenues through which protestors were relaying information outside. It seems that the technology that was employed to shut down Starlink is of military quality, according to experts, and might have been assisted by Russia or China.
Demonstrations against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been held throughout Iran, and riots have been reported in hundreds of places. The media and human rights groups indicate that over 500 individuals have been murdered and thousands of them arrested as security operatives suppress the protesters.
The agitation is fueled by frustrations of economic struggle, political suppression and foreign policies of the government.
The Iranian government has placed a virtual internet lockdown earlier this month. Starlink became an alternative to a number of protesters with mobile data and broadband services blocked. The internet service provided by the satellite does not depend on the local telecom networks and therefore is difficult to control by the governments.
Starlink had been used in the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests and had been silently viral among users in Iran despite being banned.
Starlink also briefly enabled protestors to post videos, photos and messages, which provided a rare backdoor into what was happening inside the country. But now that relationship has been broken.
Reportedly, as per reports by Iran wire and digital rights experts, approximately 30 percent of Starlink traffic was initially blocked. In a few hours, there were more than 80 percent disruptions, which practically put the service offline in most regions.
Analysts are of the view that the Iranian government deployed a so called kill switch through a powerful jamming device. In this technique the radio frequencies occupied by the Starlink and GPS signals are saturated, causing communication to be impossible. Experts indicate that this type of jamming takes high costly and sophisticated military equipment.
This type of interference is not something Amir Rashidi, a digital technology professional who has been researching internet access in Iran over the years has ever witnessed. He suspects that Iran is utilizing technology that is better than common GPS jammers.
As reported by Rashidi and other analysts, these equipment could be provided by Russia or China as both countries are experienced in electronic warfare and disrupting satellites.
In Ukraine Russia has also employed such methods of jamming GPS systems, drones and Starlink linked services. Large scale satellite jamming has also been experimented in military operations and China has made heavy investments in anti satellite and electronic warfare capabilities.
The fact that the Starlink blackout is scheduled is just when pressure on the Iranian internal and external fronts mounts. US President Donald Trump has called on Iranian protesters publicly and harshly criticised Khamenei regime. During the weekend, Trump indicated that he would discuss with Elon Musk the restoration of internet services in Iran.
Can we get the internet running? I suppose you can, Trump said and praised the technical abilities of Musk. Trump has further threatened the Iranian government against the employment of lethal power against protesters and has threatened to take US action should the violence persist.
Protests have not ceased even after the blackout. Protesters are still demanding the abolition of the clerical leadership with some even insisting on the restoration of the former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. It has been reported that even in traditionally loyal places, there has been slogan against Khamenei.
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Starlink is currently mostly congested, and the Iranian internet is under strict control, meaning that millions of people are not connected to the outside world anymore.
With the escalation of the crisis, it is yet unknown, whether the international pressure or the technical solutions can bring back the connection of the Iranians who want their voices heard.
