JAKARTA - Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service is facing one of the most serious security tests since it was first held en masse. Iran's brutal tightening of the opposition groups is now turning into a technological battlefield, with Starlink right in the middle of the geopolitical vortex, state repression, and signal warfare.
According to a Reuters report, as quoted by VOI, although Starlink is officially banned in Iran, tens of thousands of terminals are suspected of having been smuggled into the country. The exact number of active terminals is still unclear. Holistic Resilience, a US-based non-profit organization that helps distribute Starlink to Iranians, said it was working with SpaceX to monitor what they described as Iran's efforts to disrupt and jam the system.
Tehran's crackdown on dissent has made Starlink a vital communications lifeline, especially when the government cuts off national internet access. SpaceX even made Starlink service free for Iranians earlier this week, a move that puts Musk's space company head-to-head with a country that has the ability to jam satellites and spoof GPS signals.
"We're in a weird early phase in the history of space-based communications, where SpaceX is the only real provider on this scale," said John Plumb, a former Pentagon space policy official in the era of President Joe Biden. "Repressive regimes still think they can shut down communications. But that day will soon pass."
The situation is being closely observed by the US military and intelligence agencies, which also rely on Starlink and its military variant, Starshield. China is also said to be monitoring, given that the country is building its own satellite internet constellation as a competitor to Starlink. When SpaceX considered its initial public offering this year, the Iran crisis became a high-risk showcase for potential investors.
On the ground, Starlink has become a crucial tool for documenting state violence. In the past week, thousands of anti-government protesters have reportedly been killed, but communication outages have made the scale of violence difficult to verify.
Raha Bahreini, an Iranian researcher at Amnesty International, said his organization had verified dozens of videos from Iran, including footage of demonstrators killed or injured by authorities. "We believe almost all of them come from people who have access to Starlink," he said, adding that communication restrictions still hinder a thorough assessment of the human rights situation.
Starlink is considered much more difficult to disrupt than a cable network or cellular tower. But Iran is not standing still. Experts say Tehran is using satellite jammers and GPS spoofing techniques, broadcasting false location signals to confuse Starlink terminals.
"GPS spoofing really undermines the connection," said Nariman Gharib, an Iranian opposition activist and independent cyber espionage researcher based in the UK. "You may still be able to send text messages, but forget about video calls."
Starlink operates with about 10,000 low-orbit satellites traveling at about 27,360 kilometers per hour, making its signals more difficult to track and interrupt than conventional satellite systems. The network is also the backbone of SpaceX's business, with revenue of around 15 billion US dollars in 2024.
The Iranian government has been trying to close the gap for years. Elon Musk has confirmed the existence of Starlink in Iran several times through the X platform. At the peak of the protests after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, Musk said there were almost 100 active terminals in the country.
After the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025, the Iranian parliament passed a law banning the use of Starlink, with threats of severe punishment for users and distributors of unlicensed technology. Iran also took diplomatic action, asking the United Nations International Telecommunications Union to pressure the US and Norway - the country where Starlink is registered - to block the service.
In the UN forum, Iran even claimed that the Starlink terminal was used by "the attacking country" through drones. However, at the November meeting, Iran admitted that it still had difficulty tracking and disabling the terminals.
Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York declined to comment on a Reuters request. Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the internet shutdown was carried out "after we faced a terrorist operation and realized the orders came from abroad."
For the world, this confrontation is more than just a matter of the internet. This is a signal that in the era of cheap satellites and AI, the control of a country's information is increasingly fragile. For Starlink, Iran is not just a black market, but a test of whether internet from space can really not be turned off.
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