More than a hundred days since the Iranian anti-government protests began, the longest since the 1979 Islamic revolution, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk announced Starlinks are operational in the region.
On Monday, Musk tweeted, “Approaching 100 Starlinks active in Iran.” He tweeted at Wall Street Silver, who posted a video showing Iranian women walking around without hijabs.
Streets of Iran now … more freedom for the women to choose whether they cover their hair or not.
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) December 26, 2022
In September, Musk said he would activate Starlink terminals in Iran. At the time, he responded to the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s tweet that the US would “advance internet freedom and the free flow of information” to Iranians.
Starlink satellite broadband service — already in use across Ukraine — would allow Iranians to circumnavigate the government’s authoritarian control over the internet and social media platforms amid widespread social unrest.
The government has blocked YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Telegram, Snapchat, and Medium for fear these Western social media platforms could support continued uprisings and spread information that acts like a megaphone. But with Starlink terminals, access to the outside world is now possible.
Over the years, especially during the Arab uprisings a decade ago, social media played a critical role in mobilizing young protesters — some referred to the unrest as Facebook or Twitter revolutions.
Reuters nor any other Western media outlet questioned who or what organizations were operating the terminals and for what purpose. If we had to guess, one logical assumption might be the terminals are used by anti-government groups with support from Western nations to disseminate information from the outside world and help organize protests to overthrow the government.
And this could be true.
It’s clear Elon Musk is coordinating with the White House in its regime-change scheme targeting Iran
Starlink is not a tool of “free speech”; it’s a weapon of hybrid warfare to destabilize a sovereign state (like the CIA’s fake Twitter in Cuba, ZunZuneo)https://t.co/vRpF07nnOl
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 27, 2022
