Friday, 16 January 2026
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Starlink offers a glimmer of hope in the internet darkness

Is it two thousand? Is it 12,000? Is it even more? These are the figures of protesters killed in Iran that have been circulating in the news this week. We don’t know for certain what the exact number is. To hide what’s happening, authorities pulled the plug on the internet last Thursday and it is still largely off. The move was both desperate and despotic. Without the internet ordinary people can’t organise online, they can’t reveal the true extent of the horrors taking place and they can’t even be reached by loved ones outside the country.

This is not the first time Iran has imposed a digital blackout. Operating their own version of a Great Firewall, nicknamed the “halal internet”, they first trialled a blackout during the protests of 2019. Nor is Iran alone in resorting to this tactic. The Taliban did the same in Afghanistan last September, Israel cut ([link removed]) fibreoptic cables in parts of Gaza, Pakistan shut down ([link removed]) the internet in Balochistan, India implemented a months-long blockade in Kashmir and Ethiopia disconnected restive regions 30 times ([link removed]) in a decade – to name just a few.

Uganda is now also without internet ([link removed]) . The authorities there have cut access before – during the last election in 2021. People were back at the polls yesterday and the internet has been suspended ahead of voting. The government says it’s on the grounds of public safety, to prevent "online misinformation, disinformation [and] electoral fraud... as well as preventing [the] incitement of violence". That’s rubbish. The election is a rematch of the 2021 contest between President Yoweri Museveni, who’s been in power for four decades, and the incredibly popular former singer Bobi Wine (who we’ve interviewed several times, the latest here ([link removed]) ). Like Ali Khamenei, Museveni is an autocrat through and through. Ergo, information must be controlled. Failing that, information must be stopped.

On the positive side, the shutdowns have their weaknesses. Iran International spokesman Adam Baillie told me they’re still receiving information from Iran, even if it’s a fraction of what it was (it’s dropped from approximately 12,000 clips a day to 400 Baillie told me this week). The opposition has found a major loophole in Starlink, a satellite internet service operated by SpaceX.

In Uganda, where Starlink has been disabled, Wine has encouraged supporters to download an app that provides online access via Bluetooth technology. He had this message for his followers this week: “All those in Uganda, who are able to bypass the criminal regime's internet blockade – big up yourselves! Pass around the message. Let everyone know how to do it. They cut off the internet in order to hide rigging and atrocities. Record everything and share with the world. #FreeUgandaNow”.

None of this is a substitute for full, unfiltered internet access, which in 2026 is a basic human right, and in Iran authorities are racing to confiscate personal Starlink devices and jam GPS signals, reportedly using Russian military tech ([link removed]) . But when the goal of these regimes is total darkness, even a flicker of light, or WiFi matters.

Jemimah Steinfeld

CEO, Index on Censorship


** The best of Index this week
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Rahima Mahmut: Tell the world what is happening to the Uyghurs ([link removed])

The musician and activist writes about the Uyghurs who have inspired her ([link removed])

A tale of two cities in the deplatforming of Jewish and Palestinian speakers ([link removed])

Literary festivals and schools should be safe spaces to talk about uncomfortable ideas ([link removed])

The secret graffiti grandma of Tehran ([link removed])

We follow the life of an Iranian, spray-painting grandmother keeping the words of the protests alive ([link removed])

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** Meet our Tyrant of the Year 2025
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The polls have now closed for the title of 2025 Tyrant of the Year. You can now discover who our readers have voted as the leader who has done more than any other to win this dubious accolade.

MEET THE WINNER ([link removed])


** In case you missed it
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Iranians turn to pre-revolution flag as symbol of discontent

Videos have emerged from the embattled streets of Iran showing protesters flying the country's pre-revolution flag which, according to Iran International ([link removed]) , has become a wider symbol of protest against the current regime. The flag, featuring a lion and sun, has long been a symbol used by groups who opposed Iran’s leadership after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. And it is a banned symbol within the country. Iran International reported on 9 January that X had changed its Iranian flag symbol ([link removed]) to the Lion and Sun flag in a show of solidarity with demonstrators.

You can see videos of the flag being flown in Tehran here ([link removed]) and here ([link removed]) .


Weather forecasters targeted by hate speech

Meteorologists and climate researchers are facing an increase in online attacks ([link removed]) by users on social media sites such as X, ministers have warned. An academic study ([link removed]) into hate speech centring around the Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET) linked this rise in hate speech to a “wider trend of anti-intellectualism” and the spread of climate-related conspiracy theories. The Guardian reported that Sara Aagesen, one of Spain’s deputy prime ministers, said: “a surge in the intensity, frequency and violence of the attacks” had occurred.

MAGA tightens grip over press freedoms

Applicants for jobs at Stars and Stripes ([link removed]) , the American military newspaper supposedly guaranteed editorial independence by Congress, have been reportedly asked how they would support President Trump’s executive orders and policies, reports the Washington Post. “Asking prospective employees how they would support the administration’s policies is antithetical to Stripes’ journalistic and federally mandated mission” Stars and Stripes ombudsman Jacqueline Smith told the Post.

In a similar attack on the free press this week, journalist Seth Harp ([link removed]) , author of The Fort Bragg Cartel (2025) and contributing editor for Rolling Stone, has been the target of a subpoena by the House Oversight Committee. This motion comes following a post on X in which Harp posted a photograph and biography of a US military officer. This post led to Florida Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna to accuse Harp of leaking classified information, the subpoena will force Harp to testify about the post.


** Flashback
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Date with destiny ([link removed])

by Nilou Mobasser ([link removed])

Volume 28, Issue 5 ([link removed])

“The history of Iran — any more than the history of any other country — cannot be reduced to digestible soundbites.”

As the internet blackout continues in Iran and the number of expected protestors killed skyrockets, we revisit this essay from 1999 by the late Iranian translator Nilou Mobasser. Written ten years after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, she reminds us that it is the people of Iran who must decide its future. Read more here. ([link removed])


** Support our work
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The world is becoming more authoritarian and our work calling out human rights abuses and promoting freedom of expression in countries such as Iran, Uganda, Iran and Turkey has never been more important.

By supporting Index on Censorship today, you can help us in our work with censored artists, jailed musicians, journalists under threat and dissidents facing torture or worse.

Please donate today ([link removed])

Photos by: (Uganda’s internet blockade) NetBlocks/X; (Iran Protest 2026) Bjanka Kadic/Alamy

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