SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk announced he is activating his Starlink satellite internet service in Iran after the state cut off access amid protests sweeping the nation.
Musk’s announcement came after the Treasury Department issued a general license allowing companies to bolster internet access to Iranians and circumvent state-sponsored efforts to quash dissent. Citizens of Iran have faced severe internet restrictions in recent days, the most stringent since authorities clashed with protesters in November 2019. The reason for the latest state-sponsored outages are massive protests sweeping Tehran, the nation’s capital, in response to the death of Iranian journalist Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police.
TREASURY DEPARTMENT MOVES TO EXPAND INTERNET ACCESS IN IRAN AMID MASS CENSORSHIP
Amini was a female Iranian journalist who was apprehended and allegedly killed by local officials for violating the country’s modest dress code, specifically for wearing her hijab incorrectly. Authorities said the 22-year-old died of a heart attack. Her family, meanwhile, alleges she was beaten to death, noting that she had no heart condition that would explain her sudden death. International experts have backed the family’s position, saying her death was almost certainly at the hands of Iran’s morality police.
Tehran cut off global internet access to most of its 80 million citizens on Wednesday. Amini was killed the Friday before, and protests have shown no signs of slowing down. The response has been so intense that thousands of counterprotesters have also taken to the streets in Tehran and other cities in support of the hijab and conservative dress codes.
The U.S. Treasury Department has a litany of sanctions currently imposed against Iran and any person or entity that does business with Tehran. Those penalties kept Musk from being able to activate Starlink in the country. Musk said this week that he would seek an exception to the U.S. sanctions in order to provide his broadband service against the Iranian government’s wishes. The Treasury Department approved his request, as well as the new guidance, on Friday.
According to its company website, Starlink is “a constellation of thousands of satellites that orbit the planet much closer to Earth, at about 550km, and cover the entire globe. Because Starlink satellites are in a low orbit, latency [the round trip data time between the user and satellite] is significantly lower [than most satellite internet services] — around 20 ms vs 600+ ms.”
Starlink may allow some Iranians to get back online, but a State Department official briefing reporters Friday cautioned that Tehran still has “repressive tools for communication.” The new license that Musk will use makes it “easier for the Iranian people to confront some of those oppressive tools,” they added. “It doesn’t mean that they don’t exist anymore.”
U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said at the same briefing that the changes will allow technology companies to “expand the range of internet services available to Iranians.”
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken celebrated the update Friday in his first public comments on the matter since the new guidance was implemented, writing on Twitter: “We took action today to advance Internet freedom and the free flow of information for the Iranian people, issuing a General License to provide them greater access to digital communications to counter the Iranian government’s censorship.”
“Activating Starlink,” Musk replied.
