Starlink and Satellite Internet

According to U.S. officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration covertly moved roughly 6,000 Starlink satellite‑internet terminals into Iran after Tehran’s security forces crushed nationwide protests in January, killing thousands of demonstrators and sharply restricting internet access. This is the first time Washington has directly supplied Starlink kits into Iran, part of a broader effort to keep dissidents and opposition networks online when the regime throttles or cuts connectivity. The move effectively uses a U.S. commercial space system—SpaceX’s Starlink—as an instrument of foreign policy and information warfare, blurring lines between private infrastructure and state operations. It also risks further escalation with Iran, which routinely denounces foreign support for internal dissent as interference and espionage, and will raise questions in Congress about oversight of covert support involving U.S. tech platforms.