Digital blackout in Iran: Starlink heavily disrupted

The satellite-based internet service Starlink is currently being heavily disrupted in Iran. This is reported by the exiled Iranian news portal IranWire. Although several tens of thousands of Starlink units are said to be operated covertly in the country, the acute internet blackout in Iran largely affects the satellite network operated by the US company SpaceX.

IranWire, citing IT security researcher Amir Rashidi, speaks of a dedicated disruption of Starlink systems using technically sophisticated military jammers. These are allegedly supplied to the Iranian regime from Russia or China or developed in Iran itself. According to Rashidi, approximately 30 percent of Starlink's data traffic was disrupted in the initial hours of the digital shutdown last Thursday. By 10 p.m. local time, the share had risen to over 80 percent. The highly sophisticated jammers are distributed throughout the country, according to IranWire, which is why access to Starlink internet varies depending on the region.

According to recent estimates, around 40,000 to 50,000 people in Iran use the satellite-based internet service from the US company SpaceX. The internet service is not officially licensed in Iran, and the ground stations, called terminals, are brought into the country illegally. Those who use Starlink nonetheless face drastic penalties.

Despite the disruptions, Starlink currently remains one of the few ways for Iranian people to maintain contact with the outside world, organize themselves, and share photos and videos of the protests on social networks. According to US internet activist Mehdi Yahyanejad, Starlink is the reason current footage of the unrest has reached the international public at all.

Digital blackout for almost four days

In the course of the rapidly escalating nationwide protests against the authoritarian clerical leadership of Iran last week, the regime of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei began blocking the internet in large parts of the country last Thursday. As of today, internet traffic has been largely paralyzed for more than 84 hours. This is shown by data from the organization Netblocks, which monitors global network traffic and possible blockages.

The aim of the internet blockade is to make communication between demonstrators more difficult and to prevent the media dissemination of deadly violence against demonstrators. Activists from the US human rights organization Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) reported more than 500 deaths on Sunday.

New dimensions of communicative isolation

The current digital blackout in Iran marks a new level of escalation in state-imposed digital isolation. Not only international data connections are affected. The national network, built up over years a kind of nationwide intranet, has also been shut down, according to IranWire. The news portal also reports that national and international mobile and landline connections have also been temporarily cut.

According to reports from dpa, the Iranian government has meanwhile commented for the first time on a possible lifting of the telecommunications blockades. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghai said they hoped for a solution to the problem. The internet blockade was also addressed at a meeting with diplomats.

(rah)