Users of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service in Iran were able to use the service for free on Tuesday, according to U.S.-based organizations that work on international technology issues.
Starlink’s parent company, the rocket maker SpaceX, waived fees for the service on Tuesday morning, said Ahmad Ahmadian, the executive director of Holistic Resilience, a nonprofit that helps Iranians get access to the web. He said people in Iran had told him that they did not have to pay Starlink to get online, amid a near-total communications blackout in the country as it grapples with mass protests.
Mehdi Yahyanejad, a co-founder of NetFreedom Pioneers, a U.S.-based tech nonprofit, said a person he works with in Iran had also connected to the internet using Starlink for free on Tuesday. The person tested the free access by turning on an unused Starlink device, he said.
SpaceX, which Mr. Musk founded in 2002, did not return requests for comment. Bloomberg reported earlier that SpaceX was offering free Starlink service in Iran.
The Iranian authorities have cracked down on protests in the country in recent days and imposed a communications blockade to prevent people from getting information and from organizing online. Eyewitnesses have said Iranian forces have opened fire on unarmed protesters; the toll of dead and injured is unclear.
Mr. Musk’s Starlink service is often the only way to get internet access in conflict zones, remote areas and places hit by natural disasters. It relies on thousands of satellites that communicate with terminals on Earth to beam high-speed internet. Ukrainian forces have used the service heavily in their war against Russia, for example.
Mr. Musk’s ability to turn Starlink on and off in places, as well as his dominance in space with satellites and rockets, has made him a formidable and unpredictable geopolitical player.
Starlink has been highly lucrative for SpaceX. The company, which recently offered to buy insider shares in a deal that would value it at $800 billion, has become one of the world’s most valuable private firms and has told shareholders that it is preparing to go public.
The Iranian authorities have chafed at Starlink before. When antigovernment protests broke out in the country in 2022, Mr. Musk made Starlink available there to help activists stay online. The Iranian government accused SpaceX of violating its sovereignty.
Mr. Ahmadian said Iran had banned Starlink terminals and enacted a law in October that enforced strict penalties, including death, for using the service. The authorities recently appeared to be trying to jam satellite internet signals to block Starlink, he said.
Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at Miaan Group, a U.S.-based human rights nonprofit, said Iranians using Starlink had received a software update on Tuesday to boost the signal to circumvent jamming by the government.
Natallie Rocha is a San Francisco-based technology reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
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