“Iran’s communications blackout last week seemed complete. Internet and cellular networks had been shut down by the authorities. Online banking, shopping and text messaging services stopped working. Information about the growing protests was scarce.

Yet a ragtag network of activists, developers and engineers pierced Iran’s digital barricades. Using thousands of Starlink satellite internet systems that they had quietly smuggled into the country, they got online and spread images of troops firing into the streets and families searching for bodies.

Their actions, described by digital rights researchers and others, forced Iran’s government to respond. The authorities deployed military-grade electronic weaponry designed to disrupt the GPS signals that Starlink equipment needs to function, a step that activists and civil society groups said was rarely taken outside battlefields…

The hidden networks of Starlinks — and the Iranian government’s aggressive response against them — shows how national digital blackouts are becoming harder for authorities to enforce. Governments have long used internet disruptions to suppress dissent in countries like India, Myanmar and Uganda. But the spread of tools like satellite internet have complicated the shutdowns and created a cat-and-mouse hunt against new technologies.

Starlink, provided by Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, beams an internet connection from satellites to terminals on Earth, bypassing any land-based censorship infrastructure. That has helped the service play an outsize role in Iran’s protests, helping demonstrators organize and communicate with the outside world.”

From New York Times.