Iran official says Starlink could cripple Tehran’s internet-control playbook

The growing use of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite-internet service could deal the “final nail in the coffin” to Iran’s ability to control cyberspace, Deputy Communications Minister Mohammad Hafez Hakami warned.

Hakami said Iranian authorities have relied on progressively tougher restrictions during past unrest — from blocking individual platforms in 2017 to cutting nationwide internet access in 2019, restricting major platforms after the 2022 protests, and disconnecting the network during unrest this year.

“Our control over cyberspace is no longer based on our domestic network. It is based on Starlink,” Hakami was quoted by London-based Iran International as saying.

Over the last two years, Iran officials warned that wider use of the satellite internet service could make communication controls within the country "ineffective", adding the regime has failed to produce an adequate policy response.

“I sometimes joke that we might as well turn the Ministry of Communications and the Supreme Council of Cyberspace into amusement parks, because they will no longer serve any purpose,” Hakami said.

Iran has repeatedly restricted internet access during periods of unrest. Hakami said the government’s response has grown progressively more restrictive,

Iran's strategy — from blocking a single platform in 2017, shutting down internet access during the 2019 protests, blocking two major platforms after the 2022 protests and ultimately disconnecting the entire network during the bloody crackdown on nationwide protests in January 2026 — is becoming less effective as satellite-based services operate outside Iran’s state-controlled telecom infrastructure.

“If this continues, in the next crisis we may be forced to cut electricity,” Hakami said, according to Persian-language reports.

He also said Starlink and direct-to-cell satellite services could render measures such as device registration and user-identity verification ineffective.

Starlink is not licensed in Iran.

Tehran authorities have criminalised unauthorised use or importation of such satellite communications equipment.

Despite that, Starlink terminals smuggled into the country have helped some users bypass state-imposed internet blackouts, although the service remains vulnerable to jamming, location efforts and other government countermeasures.