Her voice cracked as she added: \u201cA lot of people are being killed and injured by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and we don\u2019t know who.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even Starlink is likely being jammed<\/p>\n
This is the third time Iran has shut down the internet from the outside world. The first was in 2019, when demonstrators angry about a spike in government-subsidized gasoline prices took to the streets.\u00a0Over 300 people reportedly were killed.<\/p>\n
Then came the protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by the country\u2019s morality police over allegedly not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities. A month-long crackdown killed more than 500 people.<\/p>\n
\t While the connectivity offered by Starlink played a role in the Amini demonstrations, the deployment of its receivers is now far greater in Iran. That\u2019s despite the government never authorizing Starlink to function, making the service illegal to possess and use.<\/p>\n A year ago, an Iranian official estimated tens of thousands of Starlink receivers in the Islamic Republic, a figure that Los Angeles-based internet freedom activist Mehdi Yahyanejad said sounded right.<\/p>\n While many receivers likely are in the hands of business people and others wanting to stay in touch with the outside world for their livelihoods, Yahyanejad said some are now being used to share videos, photos and other reporting on the protests.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this case, because all those things have been disrupted, Starlink is playing the key for getting all these videos out,\u201d Yahyanejad said.<\/p>\n However, Starlink receivers are facing challenges. Since its 12-day war with Israel last June, Iran has been disrupting GPS signals, likely in a bid to make drones less effective. Starlink receivers use GPS signals to position themselves to connect to a constellation of low-orbit satellites.<\/p>\n Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at the Miaan Group and an expert on Iran, said that since Thursday, he had seen about a 30% loss in packets being sent by Starlink devices \u2014 basically units of data that transmit across the internet. In some areas of Iran, Rashidi said there had been an 80% loss in packets.<\/p>\n \t \u201cI believe the Iranian government is doing something beyond GPS jamming, like in Ukraine, where Russia tried to jam Starlink,\u201d Rashidi said. He suggested Iran may be using a mobile jammer, as it did in previous decades, to disrupt satellite television receivers.<\/p>\n The International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency, has called on Iran to stop jamming in the past.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Iran has been advocating at the ITU for Starlink service to the country to be stopped.<\/p>\n Help \u2018needs to come soon\u2019<\/p>\n It appears that the majority of information coming out of Iran since Thursday night is being transmitted via Starlink, which is now illegal. That carries dangers for those possessing the devices.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to use it because if they arrest a person, they can execute the person and say this person is working for Israel or the United States,\u201d Jangravi said.<\/p>\n Not using it, however, means the world knows even less about what\u2019s happening inside Iran at a pivotal moment.<\/p>\n \u201cThis sort of nonviolent protest is not sustainable when the violence (by security forces) is so extreme,\u201d Yahyanejad said. \u201cUnless something changes in the next two or three days, these protests can die down, too. If there\u2019s any help, it needs to come soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tIllustrative: A Starlink dish and router are displayed on February 12, 2024, in San Anselmo, California. (Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images via AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AP26009440808190-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tThis frame grab from a video released by Iran state TV shows vehicles burning amid a night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 8, 2026. (Iran state TV via AP)<\/p>\n
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