Iran claims its ability to disable Starlink... and admits to slowing down the Internet

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The Secretary of the Supreme Council for Cyberspace in Iran, Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, announced that the authorities have developed several local systems to monitor stations communicating with the satellite Internet network “Starlink” and cut off their connection to satellites, saying that one of these technologies was actually used during the January 2026 protests.

Akamiri, who also heads the National Cyberspace Center, explained during a press conference on Tuesday that these systems were designed and tested locally, and that the equipment necessary to operate them is ready for use.

He also added that the operation of one of these technologies during the January protests was made by a decision of the competent authorities and within a specific geographical scope, indicating the possibility of using it in other regions when needed.

While he claimed that confronting Starlink technology is possible “from the ground and the sky,” based on foreign media reports that talked about disruptions in network communications, without revealing technical details about the systems used or providing independent evidence confirming its ability to completely disrupt the service on a large scale.

Independent reports had spoken of disturbances in Starlink communications in some Iranian regions during the January 2026 protests, but they did not prove the authorities’ ability to comprehensively cut off the network throughout the country.

During the period of protests, Starlink, a subsidiary of the American company SpaceX, turned into one of the limited means available for transmitting news and images related to the suppression of protests outside Iran, after the authorities imposed broad restrictions on the international Internet on the evening of January 8 as the protests expanded.

Reports also emerged at the time about Iranian attempts to disrupt the network through electronic jamming and manipulation of satellite navigation system signals.

In the wake of the protests and war, the authorities repeatedly announced the arrest of people on charges related to the possession or sale of Starlink equipment.

The Secretary of the Supreme Council for Cyberspace in Iran also indicated his country’s readiness to provide anti-network technologies to “countries allied with it,” as he described it, without specifying the identity of those countries or the nature of the existing cooperation with them.

In conjunction with Aqamiri's statements, government spokeswoman Fatima Mohajerani acknowledged that the authorities are deliberately reducing Internet speeds, justifying this by the continuing "war conditions" and the need to confront cyberattacks.

Mohajerani said, during her weekly press conference, that Iran is still "in the midst of a war," considering that "the shooting has stopped only in some areas."

It also claimed that concerned authorities may sometimes resort to reducing Internet speed to “protect databases and vital electronic services,” without specifying the authorities responsible for making these decisions.

Iran had imposed widespread restrictions on communications with the outside world following the American and Israeli attacks that began on February 28, 2026, during which a widespread Internet outage continued for 88 days, according to data contained in reports related to that period.

The Internet Observatory, NetBlox, described this outage as the longest of its kind on a national scale in modern history.

The Iranian authorities justified these measures at the time with “security reasons and preventing the enemy from exploiting the Internet,” while critics considered that they aimed to restrict the flow of information and prevent the circulation of news and images inside and outside the country.

In a related context, Aqamiri confirmed that Iran was subjected to cyber attacks during the war, but claimed that their impact was limited to sectors suffering, as he described it, “structural dependency on the enemy,” without revealing additional details about the entities or systems that were hacked.

The war period and its aftermath saw reports of attacks targeting banking infrastructure, government media websites, and some communications systems.

In June 2026, a cyber attack targeting the shared communications infrastructure of four Iranian banks, namely Bank Melli, Bank Tejarat, Bank Saderat, and Export Development Bank, caused disruption to part of their banking services.

Reports also spoke, in the first days of the war, of the hacking of Iranian news websites and applications, while American military officials announced, with the beginning of the war, the implementation of cyber operations aimed at weakening the communications and response capabilities of the Iranian forces.

It is noteworthy that the Supreme Council for Cyberspace is one of the main institutions concerned with setting and monitoring Internet policies in Iran. It was established in 2011 by a decision of former guide Ali Khamenei, and the President of the Republic assumes its presidency.

However, in May 2026, President Masoud Pezeshkian issued a decision to establish the “Special Headquarters for the Organization and Command of Cyberspace in the Country” following the war, and assigned his first deputy to head it.