Iran goes dark as Ayatollah shuts down Starlink internet after huge protests

Iran has severed the internet connections and telephone lines across the country amid protests over the regime's handling of the tanking economy. Just after 8pm Thursday, Iran's 85 million people were disconnected from the rest of the world. Now, the population is limited in the sharing of images and witness accounts of the nationwide protests.

Iran's attorney general also warned that anyone taking part in demonstrations will be considered an "enemy of God", - a death penalty charge. Elon Musk's Starlink has been playing a crucial role in enabling Iranians to access the internet for years, with thousands of receivers reportedly installed across the country.

While many receivers likely are in the hands of business people and others wanting to stay in touch with the outside world for their livelihoods, some are now being used to share videos, photos and other reporting on the protests.

Activist Mehdi Yahyanejad told AP News: "In this case, because all those things have been disrupted, Starlink is playing the key for getting all these videos out.

However, Starlink receivers are facing challenges. Since its 12-day war with Israel last June, Iran has been disrupting GPS signals, likely in a bid to make drones less effective.

Starlink receivers utilise GPS signals to determine their position, enabling them to connect to a constellation of low-orbit satellites.

It appears that the majority of information coming out of Iran since Thursday night is being transmitted via the internet service, which is now illegal.

Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at the Miaan Group and an expert on Iran, said that since Thursday, he had seen about a 30% loss in packets being sent by Starlink devices - basically units of data that transmit across the internet.

In some areas of Iran, Rashidi said there had been an 80% loss in packets.

He said: "I believe the Iranian government is doing something beyond GPS jamming, like in Ukraine, where Russia tried to jam Starlink."

He suggested Iran may be using a mobile jammer, as it did in previous decades, to disrupt satellite television receivers.