WASHINGTON \u2013 US businessman Elon Musk and SpaceX have activated Starlink satellite internet in Iran amid a nationwide blackout imposed by the regime during ongoing anti-government protests as of January 9, 2026, according to online reports.<\/p>\n
Iranians with smuggled Starlink terminals are accessing uncensored internet, bypassing government restrictions. Access is reportedly free for a limited period, similar to previous activations.<\/p>\n
The demonstrations, which began in Tehran last month, have spread to all of Iran’s 31 provinces but have yet to reach the scale of the 2022-3 unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini while in detention for allegedly violating Islamic dress codes.<\/p>\n
Starting in Tehran with shopkeepers in the Grand Bazaar angered by a sharp slide in the rial currency, the latest protests now involve others – mainly young men rather than the women and girls who played a key role at the Amini protests.<\/p>\n
Iran experienced from Monday a near-total internet shutdown, with traffic dropping to “near zero” as protests entered their 13th day, according to Cybernews.<\/p>\n
The protests, spanning all 31 provinces and over 100 cities, are driven by economic collapse, hyperinflation, and calls for regime change, with at least 45 deaths reported.<\/p>\n
Authorities have also disrupted phone lines and targeted media to suppress information flow.<\/p>\n
Israeli Channel 14 reported that Musk granted free Starlink access to protesters, enabling connectivity despite the blackout.<\/p>\n
Iran has protested Starlink to international bodies like the ITU and uses jamming tech, but low-Earth-orbit satellites make full blackouts harder.<\/p>\n
The Starlink satellite internet aligns with US policies easing sanctions on tech for internet freedom, and the Trump administration is monitoring the situation closely.<\/p>\n
While not “supplying” hardware directly (due to sanctions and bans), Musk has enabled the service multiple times to support connectivity during crises, making it a lifeline for protesters and dissidents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2013 US businessman Elon Musk and SpaceX have activated Starlink satellite internet in Iran amid a nationwide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-225154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}