what's happening in Iran and what you can do to help
As of January 20, 2026 it was internet blackout day 12 in Iran, with over 90 million cut from the internet.
The blackouts make it easy for the dictatorship of Iran to replace the people's voices with its propaganda: misleading people to blame America, Israel, "Western imperialism." Anything except the literal theocratic dictatorship executing people for demanding freedom. More than 12,000 protesters have already been executed - possibly tens of thousands more.
46K likes, 3,055 comments - maah__shad on January 16, 2026: "These reports are coming out of Iran under extreme conditions. The internet is
An NGO coalition calls for direct-to-cell technology for crisis areas to circumvent state censorship and protect human rights without specia
The Iranian network and communication shutdown clearly shows that access to free internet is not a luxury good. Rather, it is a fundamental prerequisite for the protection of human rights.
Current data from IT service provider Cloudflare showed a slight short-term easing in recent hours: nationwide data traffic recently reached around 30 percent of the pre-blockade level again. The organization Netblocks confirms that more VPN tunnels have been established since Friday morning and messaging services are partially functional.
However, the relief in Tehran is overshadowed by concern. Activists fear that this is only a temporary relaxation to calm the population or to lure users into state-controlled internet corridors. International connectivity remains low, and censorship extremely severe.
...Iran is not an isolated case. From Myanmar to Sudan, regimes use shutdowns to conceal violence. The technological feasibility of D2C has been proven, according to the NGOs. What is missing is the coordinated will to act. Politics must not see technology solely as a profit center but must recognize it as a digital lifeline for freedom.
Tehran’s near-total internet blackout has kept the scale of the government’s ruthless crackdown hidden
“They started attacking Starlink,” says Ms Alimardani. “We believe the way that they have been trying to disable Starlink from very early on, on Thursday evening, was through GPS jamming. By doing GPS jamming, it impacts the way the satellite receivers work.”
But the jamming has not been an entirely effective measure, Ms Alimardani explains. Anything not shared by the regime that has reached the outside world since the internet shutdown began on Thursday has most likely come from devices connected to Starlink, which is run by Musk’s space company SpaceX.
Even if Starlink were fully operational, limited hardware on the ground means its already-installed terminals would not be an effective short-term solution for 90 million people under a blackout, she said.
And yeah, I know, Musk and SpaceX are billionaire garbage.
Musk likes a big showy gesture as much as the next billionaire. If we can get a rich asshole to do something helpful, while we push for long-term solutions, IMHO we should.
For direct-to-cell connection, tech companies typically need to work through local carriers. To avoid this, they could purchase the spectrum ranges – specific slices of the invisible radio frequency (RF) airwaves that mobile operators use to send signals – covering Iran.
“A lot of us have sent this proposal to the US government and various other policymakers,” Ms Alimardani adds. “This direct-to-cell solution in the short term could possibly help Iranians, but it obviously couldn’t scale to 90 million [in the short term]. It is really a long-term project that needs to be invested in to be something that could scale to 90 million people.”
The article goes on to explain that "In 2009, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) bought a 51 per cent stake in Iran’s telecommunications company, owning most of the internet service providers."
In other words, not only does the dictatorship of Iran control the ISPs, they're specifically controlled by the dictatorship's military force. Ugh.
There are a bunch of small organizations fighting to keep internet access available to Iranians:
Iran’s near-total internet blackout since January 8 did not only shut down social media but collapsed the country’s last channels to the out
Like "NetFreedom Pioneers (NFP), a US-based nonprofit that has spent more than a decade developing tools for societies living under digital repression."
"...NFP is supporting Starlink access for Iranians, delivering terminals and covering subscription costs–that is, until Elon Musk lifted subscription fees for users in Iran–thanks to public's donations."
THESE donations! That you can help make!!
URGENT: HELP CONNECT FREEDOM FIGHTERS WITH STARLINK! Authorit… NetFreedom Pioneers needs your support for URGENT: Help Deliver Starlink
I can't believe how many articles I had to read before I found one that gave people a way to help.
You know what else the people of Iran need? They need you to TALK ABOUT IT.
They need you to seek out their voices, and follow them, and signal boost them.
They need you to bring up what's happening in Iran in your everyday conversations. That the people are rising up against a brutal almost 50-year-long dictatorship, at the cost of their lives!
This is everything we say we care about. Let's show up for it.
