Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is also the founder of SpaceX, on Friday said he is activating a satellite internet service, Starlink, amid an internet shutdown in Iran over anti-hijab protests.
Musk's response came to a tweet by a high-ranking US official who said the US took action "to advance internet freedom and the free flow of information" to Iranians.
The US government on Friday issued guidelines to expand internet services to Iranians despite US sanctions over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
A US official was quoted by Reuters as saying, "Our understanding of Starlink is that what they give would be commercial grade, and it would be hardware that's not covered in the general licence, so that would be something they would need to write into Treasury for."
Later, the US Department of Defense declared that "anyone who fits the requirements described in this general licence can proceed with their actions without asking additional approval."
Elon Musk, meanwhile, was unavailable to comment on Starlink's authorization to operate in Iran.
Two of Iran's last remaining social media platforms, Instagram and WhatsApp, were made inaccessible on Wednesday as a result of protests sparked by the death of a woman held by the morality police.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who was detained by police in Tehran for wearing inappropriate clothing, passed away while they had her. Anger over topics such as freedom and rights in the Islamic Republic were released as a result of her death.
Women took to the streets in protest against morality police as the demonstrations extended across the nation. Some women chopped their hair in public while others waved and burnt their veils.
Since the protest in November 2019, when a rise in fuel prices caused Internet outages and the deaths of hundreds of protestors, this is Iran's most pervasive unrest.
