As a severe internet blackout engulfs Iran, a small but determined number of citizens are risking imprisonment and their lives to maintain a fragile digital connection to the outside world. This follows days of escalating anti-government protests, with the shutdown imposed last Thursday marking one of the most extensive in years.
The Clandestine Tech Keeping Iran Online
For the vast majority of Iran's population of over 90 million, the digital world has gone dark. However, a tiny fraction, perhaps numbering in the hundreds of thousands at most, are still managing to transmit photos, videos, and messages. These crucial dispatches, such as footage of crowds chanting "death to Khamenei" or images of casualties, are flowing through a secretive ecosystem of censorship-bypassing tools.
According to Iranian digital rights expert Amir Rashidi, this includes Telegram proxies, the decentralised Delta Chat messaging service, and the Ceno browser. Yet the most significant component by far is the network of Starlink satellite terminals, part of Elon Musk's SpaceX, which have been smuggled into the country en masse over the past two years.
Rashidi estimates there are about 50,000 Starlink terminals now in Iran, with other reports suggesting the figure could be as high as 100,000. While a single terminal can serve multiple users or even an entire apartment block, the total number of people accessing the internet this way remains a small minority, confirms Doug Madory, Director of Internet Analysis at Kentik.
A High-Stakes Game of Cat and Mouse
Possessing this technology has become an exceptionally dangerous act. Under a law passed in 2025, owning a Starlink terminal can be interpreted as espionage for Israel and is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. "They have basically criminalised Starlink," Rashidi states, noting the law equates its use with conducting operations for Israeli or American intelligence.
Iranian authorities are actively hunting for the devices. Sources describe a campaign involving jamming entire neighbourhoods with military-grade electronic warfare tools and flying drones over rooftops to spot the distinctive satellite dishes. These jammers, similar to those used on the frontlines in Ukraine, are expensive and energy-intensive, capable of blocking specific radio frequencies in a localised area but unable to blanket the entire country.
In response, those with terminals are taking extreme precautions. The tech-savvy use VPNs to disguise their online presence, while others physically move their equipment from place to place to avoid detection. Despite the jamming, which in heavy areas limits users to sending basic messages, this smuggled tech represents Iran's last tenuous electronic link to the outside world.
The Dawn of a 'National Internet'
The regime's long-term strategy appears to be moving towards a permanently restricted digital environment. An announcement on a state-linked Telegram channel recently published a list of internet sites that will be available, revealing a push for a fully domestic alternative. This includes Iranian versions of search engines, maps, messaging apps, and even a government-approved streaming service akin to Netflix.
Rashidi explains this is part of a concerted effort to create a national internet, a skeleton version of the web more restricted than China's, managed entirely by the state and largely disconnected from the global network. This project, initiated during the Rouhani administration, now seems to be operational.
Both Madory and Rashidi warn that the open internet Iran once knew may not return. "There are rumours," says Rashidi. "Some people are saying that if things go back to normal, there won't be the internet. There will be only the national internet." Madory concurs, suggesting the authorities are "gearing up for the long run, for this to be the way things are for an extended period of time."
For now, the digital resistance continues, a high-risk endeavour powered by smuggled satellites and sheer determination, holding open a critical window on events inside a closed nation.
