Thursday, January 15, 2026 - SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has reportedly dropped its fees, allowing more people in Iran to bypass the government’s most aggressive effort yet to block information from reaching the outside world, according to activists.
Although Elon Musk’s SpaceX has not officially announced the
move and did not respond to requests for comment, activists say Starlink has
been available free of charge since Tuesday to anyone in Iran with the required
receivers.
The development comes as Iranian authorities intensify
internet restrictions amid a renewed wave of protests and violent crackdowns.
Starlink, which provides satellite-based internet access, has become a critical
tool for activists seeking to share information despite state-imposed
shutdowns.
“Starlink has been crucial,” said Mehdi Yahyanejad, an
Iranian activist whose nonprofit organisation, Net Freedom Pioneers, has helped
smuggle Starlink units into the country. He pointed to graphic footage that
surfaced on Sunday showing rows of bodies at a forensic medical centre near
Tehran.
“That footage showed a few hundred bodies on the ground, and
it came out because of Starlink,” Yahyanejad said in an interview from Los
Angeles. “Those videos changed people’s understanding of what is happening
because they could see it with their own e
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