Nearly a hundred Internet terminals from the Starlink network are active in Iran, SpaceX boss Elon Musk said on Monday.
“Soon 100 active Starlinks in Iran,” he tweeted on Monday, three months after promising he would activate the service in the country to support democratic protests stemming from the uprising over the death of Mahsa Amini.
Approaching 100 Starlinks active in Iran
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2022
The billionaire had said in September that he would activate Starlink in Iran as part of a US-backed effort "to advance internet freedom and the free flow of information" for Iranians.
Washington has revised the legal definition of its sanctions against the Islamic Republic for this purpose.
Musk's satellite broadband service could help Iranians bypass government-imposed restrictions on accessing the internet and certain social media platforms.
Starlink has a network of more than 2,000 small satellites in low orbit above the Earth, which help provide Internet access.
Terrestrial terminals are then connected to routers which make it possible to generate wi-fi.
Read alsoIn Iran, men are revolting in turn: “Women gave me courage”
Protests have shaken Iran since the death on September 16 of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, after her arrest in Tehran by this police.
Since then, hundreds of people have been killed, thousands arrested and two 23-year-old men have been hanged.
Instagram and WhatsApp, the only networks open to Iranians, were cut in the initial clashes, as were VPNs, which Iranians use to access banned sites.
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