Iranian authorities have promised to keep up their campaign against Starlink, the satellite internet service owned by Elon Musk, and have signalled that further limits on the wider internet may follow as the war involving the United States, Israel and Iran continues. The announcements came from Tehran as the conflict drags on with no permanent resolution in sight.
Starlink operates without the heavy filtering that Tehran applies to online traffic, which is one reason the service has been outlawed on national security grounds. Using satellite-based internet and distributing Starlink terminals both carry fines and prison terms.
Penalties for Starlink use and the wartime backdrop
The restrictions are part of a wider set of measures introduced since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28. That attack set off a long and economically damaging conflict between the two countries.
Iran’s roughly 90 million people have already lived through two lengthy nationwide internet shutdowns this year. The first lasted three weeks during protests in January, and the second ran for 88 days at the outset of the current war.
Iran has set baseline sentences of between six months and two years for using or possessing Starlink. Importing or distributing the devices can bring jail terms of up to five years. When charges of national security or espionage are added, individuals may face the death penalty.
Official warnings and the methods used to block Starlink
Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, secretary of the Supreme National Cyberspace Council, described Starlink as a “tool of war” in the hands of enemies. He said the system was used by the enemy for command and control, as well as for espionage and gathering information. He added that Iran has several systems for cutting off Starlink terminals.
Aghamiri did not say which measures or devices are used to block the service. However, one such method was deployed during the January protests, and authorities were reportedly ready to share that technology with countries that align with Tehran.
A Tehran-based internet and telecommunications expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said authorities combine several techniques to block Starlink connections. These include multiple jammers set to different configurations, along with spoofed GPS locations intended to slow down newly installed devices. Officials can also identify the internet protocols linked to Starlink when those connect to local applications and services.
The expert also said authorities try to physically seize terminals through patrols and drone searches, and by raiding places that sell them. Separately, Israeli politician Naftali Bennett claimed in June that Israel had smuggled tens of thousands of Starlink devices into Iran during his time as prime minister between 2021 and 2022, to help antigovernment protesters. That claim has not been verified in the material provided.
Iran has also pursued the issue internationally since 2023, bringing it before the International Telecommunication Union’s Radio Regulations Board. Tehran has pressed the United States and Norway, which plays a role in the satellite network’s regulatory filings, to halt transmissions. On October 4, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Tehran, protesting what it described as a failure to act over unauthorised Starlink operations.
Platform blocks and a possible unblocking framework
At a governance meeting at the end of September, Deputy Technology Minister Mohammad Hafez Hakami warned that Starlink could become “the last nail in the coffin” of cyberspace governance in Iran if it spreads widely. He pointed to the unrestricted access the service offers as the source of that risk.
Hakami recalled that the government blocked the messaging app Telegram after the cost-of-living protests of 2017 and 2018. It later imposed a weeklong internet shutdown for the first time during the nationwide protests in 2019. WhatsApp and Instagram were blocked after the 2022-23 protests, which came before the near-total shutdown during the January 2026 demonstrations.
“If this trend continues, in the next crisis we will have to cut electricity, because Starlink, as a new tool of evading state governance, is fundamentally not even dependent on our network,” Hakami said.
Starlink has allowed Iranians to send videos of protests abroad since 2022, despite state restrictions. Tens of thousands of terminals are believed to have been smuggled into the country since then, although no exact figures are available. Most people, however, still cannot use Starlink because of the risk of a state crackdown, limited supply and cost. They rely instead on the domestic internet, which blocks most international services and thousands of websites, while US sanctions and banking restrictions make access to global services harder still.
Many Iranians use virtual private networks and other tools to reach the open internet. These can slow connections, cost money or expose users to unsafe connections that put their data at risk, and they become harder to obtain during state-imposed blackouts.
Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told a news conference on Tuesday that state bodies were deliberately disrupting the internet, which she said was meant to protect people and national assets from cyberattacks. “It is obvious that due to the importance of our databases and internet-based services, decision-making bodies are sometimes forced to bring down internet speeds,” she said. “We don’t deny this issue.”
Authorities say more restrictions could follow if the war escalates. Violence has eased somewhat since a memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran in June, although that arrangement lapsed without a permanent ceasefire.
Officials also claim they have considered lifting limits on some platforms, but no action has been taken so far. Late on Tuesday, state-linked media released a policy and governance framework document, which Aghamiri said had been under consideration for nearly two years and kept confidential because of security concerns. The document sets no timeline for reopening any platform, and media reports said its implementation had been halted by the wars and protests.
According to the document, Google Play and WhatsApp could potentially be unblocked. YouTube and Telegram, by contrast, would have to negotiate with Iran and accept certain conditions set by the authorities before they could be restored. Such steps by the major social media companies are considered highly unlikely.
