Elon Musk’s Starlink is reportedly offering free service to users in Iran, where a communications blackout is under way amid widespread antigovernment protests.

The satellite communication service from SpaceX is one of the few ways that images and videos of the protests and the ensuing government crackdown have made their way out of Iran. Here’s what you need to know:

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How is Starlink being used in Iran?

After Iran’s government cut off access to much of the internet on Thursday, Iranians have turned to proxy tools and Starlink’s constellation of low-orbit satellites to get online and share news of the protests with the outside world.

Starlink does not have a licence to operate in Iran, but thousands of its terminals have been smuggled into Iran since 2022 when then-United States President Joe Biden authorised US tech companies to bypass sanctions and sell Iranians communication tools. That move coincided with mass protests that had broken out over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who was arrested for allegedly wearing the hijab improperly.

More recently, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that he wanted to see Starlink restore internet access to Iran and he would speak to Musk about the issue.

Although neither Starlink nor Musk has publicly confirmed the news, a person familiar with Starlink services told Bloomberg that the company is offering free services to Iran.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam – director of Iran Human Rights, a human rights group with members inside and outside Iran – told Al Jazeera that access to Starlink has played a pivotal role in sharing information about the protests, including estimates about the death toll.

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“It has been extremely important because the alternative would have been no information,” Amiry-Moghaddam said.

Iran has released no official death toll, but authorities said more than 100 members of the security forces have been killed. Opposition activists said the toll is much higher and includes more than 1,000 protesters. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the number of dead has climbed to at least 2,571. Al Jazeera cannot independently verify any of these figures.

How does this communication blackout compare with the past?

There have been 17 internet shutdowns in Iran since 2018, according to the Internet Society, a digital rights nonprofit, but they have varied in severity.

Blackouts have coincided with periods of unrest, such as the 2019 protests over fuel prices and the 2022 demonstrations after Amini’s death, according to Cloudflare, a global cybersecurity and cloud services firm.

Iran also briefly cut off internet access in June during a 12-day war with Israel and the US.

But Amiry-Moghaddam said the blackout this month has been more extensive than previous occasions due to its geographic scope and restrictions on international phone access.

“In 2019, there was a real blackout. In 2022, there were some areas, for some hours, and it was moving. But it has never been the whole country the way it is now and for so many days. It has never been that extensive,” Amiry-Moghaddam said.

The Fars news agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said in a Telegram post on Wednesday that access to the National Information Network, the state-controlled domestic intranet, had been restored.

The post said the “final decision on greater access to the internet” would be made in the next two weeks by “relevant institutions”.

How is Iran blocking communications?

Iran’s latest shutdown was preceded by several days of internet traffic “anomalies” as antigovernment protests swept Iran, according to a Cloudflare analysis.

After the initial shutdown on Thursday, there were brief periods of connectivity on Friday, but as of Saturday, Iran “remains almost entirely cut off from the global internet”, according to its analysis.

Iran’s government has also tried to jam Starlink’s signals and seize terminals in a departure from past blackouts.

“In previous incidents, none of the internet shutdowns were as severe as this one,” Amir Rashidi, director of internet security and digital rights at the nonprofit Miaan Group, told Al Jazeera. “We never saw Iran trying to jam Starlink. That was not the case at all. Now they’re doing it.”

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Iranian state media shared a video on Telegram on Tuesday of confiscated Starlink terminals and other telecommunications equipment still in their original packaging, which it described as “electronic espionage and sabotage items.”

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence said the items were supposed to be distributed in areas that were experiencing unrest, according to the post.

How does Starlink work?

Starlink’s “constellation” of telecoms satellites circle in a low Earth orbit about 550km (340 miles) above the ground.

On Earth, the person wanting to hook up to the internet must have a wifi-enabled satellite receiver. Much like a mobile phone connecting to different base stations as a user moves around, Starlink receivers, also known as terminals, must constantly hand off from one satellite to another as they pass overhead.

This contrasts with traditional telecommunication satellites, which are “geostationary”, meaning they orbit over the same spot on the Earth’s surface. That means Starlink customers don’t depend on just any one satellite. But it also means that the Starlink receiver is designed to accept signals from a wider angle – and that in turn leaves it more vulnerable to jamming.

How has Starlink been used in Ukraine and other places?

Starlink is also offering free broadband service to Venezuela through February 3, according to SpaceX. It decided this after the January 3 abduction of President Nicolas Maduro by US special forces.

The company has also offered a month of free service to users impacted by natural disasters like Hurricane Melissa or the Canadian wildfires of 2025.

Starlink, however, has a mixed and even controversial record in some countries.

What are the controversies that have surrounded Starlink use?

The satellite service provided Ukraine’s military with a vital communications lifeline after Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, but in September of that year, Musk reportedly ordered a Starlink shutdown over several regions of Ukraine as Kyiv prepared a counteroffensive.

Starlink has also been used by different groups in Sudan and Myanmar, two countries that are fighting years-long civil wars and experience frequent communications blackouts.

Scam centres in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have used Starlink to stay online despite international law enforcement efforts to cut off their power and internet connections. SpaceX said in October that it had disabled thousands of terminals in Myanmar although scam centres persist in the region. The United Nations estimated in 2023 that at least 220,000 people were trafficked to work in scam centres, where they engage in romance, investment and cryptocurrency scams online on behalf of criminal syndicates.

Meanwhile, critics say that the decision by the private company to operate in Iran without a licence has raised questions about the power of major corporations to violate the sovereignty of nations.

In 2023, Iran complained to the International Communication Union (ITU), the UN’s telecoms arm, about Starlink’s deployment in the country without authorisation. The ITU ruled in Iran’s favour, declaring Starlink’s actions illegal.

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