- January 10, 2026
- 9:56 pm
- Middle East
On Thursday evening, around eight o’clock, Iran shut down the internet, effectively cutting off about 85 million people from the outside world. Such a move has already become a recognizable practice for Tehran during crisis periods — when the authorities try to simultaneously disrupt coordination on the streets and block the flow of evidence to the outside.
Until this point, Iranians, despite sanctions and internal blockages, often maintained access to familiar apps and websites through VPNs. But the current shutdown sharply narrows even these loopholes: sharing videos, photos, and testimonies about the protests becomes much more difficult, meaning less information reaches journalists, human rights activists, and relatives abroad.
Against the backdrop of a worsening economy, the protest wave increasingly appears to be the most dangerous internal threat to the regime in recent years. In such conditions, “digital darkness” can serve as a cover for harsh suppression when public justification and trust in the authorities are dwindling, and the stakes are higher.
Outside the country, this is perceived as a personal catastrophe.
Relatives of Iranians in the USA, Europe, Canada, and other countries remain out of touch and live in a state of constant anxiety. On Saturday, Iran’s Attorney General stated that participants in the protests would be considered “enemies of God,” which means the risk of the harshest sentences, including the death penalty.
Azam Janravi, a cybersecurity specialist from Toronto, describes the state of the diaspora very directly: imagine your brothers and cousins are taking to the streets — and you can’t call them or see what’s happening. She says she couldn’t concentrate on work and thought only about her loved ones and friends. Her voice is filled with tears: people are dying and getting injured, and abroad, they don’t understand who exactly, where, and what is happening to them.
In this story, one word increasingly surfaces: Starlink.
The internet shutdown has already become the third major one in recent years. In 2019, when protests were against rising gasoline prices, there were reports of hundreds of deaths. In 2022, after the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly “improper” wearing of a hijab, protests were again suppressed with a large number of casualties.
At that time, communication through Starlink played a noticeable role: some people gained the ability to transmit information outside, bypassing state blockages. Now the use of terminals, according to descriptions, has grown even more — despite the fact that the authorities have not given permission, and the service remains illegal.
According to official estimates, there may be tens of thousands of Starlink receivers in the country. Internet activist Mehdi Yahyanejad agrees: most devices are likely in the hands of businesses, but some owners use them specifically to send videos and photos from protest sites.
However, Starlink does not appear to be a “magic button.”
After the war with Israel in June last year, Iran, according to these same testimonies, began to more actively suppress GPS signals — as an element of military logic and management of technological capabilities. And Starlink receivers need GPS for stable communication with low-orbit satellites.
Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at Miaan Group, estimates a drop in data transmission levels from Starlink devices by about 30% recently. In certain regions, he says, the drop reached 80% — meaning communication turns into a lottery rather than a stable channel.
That is why most messages that still come out of Iran after the internet shutdown are through Starlink — and this makes users vulnerable. The fear of arrest becomes a factor causing people to avoid turning on the terminals. Janravi speaks directly: if a person is detained, they may be accused of working for Israel or the USA, and the consequences can be extreme.
But the paradox is that refusing communication makes the situation even more opaque — both for the world and for the diaspora itself, which is trying to understand if their relatives are alive.
Yahyanejad believes that such radical protest is difficult to sustain under conditions of extremely harsh suppression and informational isolation. If nothing changes in the coming days, protest activity may begin to wane — not because the reasons have disappeared, but because the conditions for continuation have disappeared.
Iran once again shows that modern warfare and internal crisis occur not only on land and in the sky but also through cables — where a single switch can sever people’s connection to the world and each other. NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency records this moment as key: in 2026, control over information becomes as much a tool of power as security forces and repressive courts.
