On 8 January 2026, the Iranian authorities imposed a near-total communications shutdown. It was the nation’s first full info blackout: For weeks, the web was off throughout all provinces whereas companies together with the government-run intranet, VPNs, textual content messaging, cellular calls, and even landlines had been severely throttled. It was an unprecedented lockdown that left greater than 90 million people lower off not solely from the world, however from each other.
Since then, connectivity has by no means absolutely returned. Following U.S. and Israeli airstrikes in late February, Iran once more imposed near-total restrictions, and folks contained in the nation once more noticed world info flows dry up.
The unique January shutdown got here amid nationwide protests over the deepening financial disaster and political repression, during which thousands and thousands of individuals chanted antigovernment slogans within the streets. Whereas Iranian protests have grow to be frequent in recent times, this was probably the most vital uprisings for the reason that Islamic Revolution in 1979. The federal government responded rapidly and brutally. One report put the dying toll at more than 7,000 confirmed deaths and greater than 11,000 below investigation. Many sources imagine the dying toll may exceed 30,000.
13 days into the January shutdown, we at NetFreedom Pioneers (NFP) turned to a system we had constructed for precisely this type of second—one which sends recordsdata over peculiar satellite tv for pc TV alerts. Throughout the nationwide info vacuum, our know-how, referred to as Toosheh, delivered real-time updates into Iran, providing a lifeline to thousands and thousands starved of trusted info.
How Iran Censors the Web
I joined NetFreedom Pioneers, a nonprofit targeted on anticensorship know-how, in 2014. Censorship in Iran was a defining characteristic of my youth within the Nineties. After the Islamic Revolution, most Iranians started to steer double lives—one at house, the place they may drink, dance, and select their clothes, and one other in public, the place everybody needed to adjust to stifling authorities legal guidelines.
Iran’s web infrastructure is extra centralized than in different components of the world, making it simpler for the federal government to limit the circulation of knowledge. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Photos
My first expertise with secret communications was after I was 5 and residing within the small metropolis of Fasa in southern Iran. My uncle introduced house a satellite tv for pc dish—dangerously unlawful on the time—that allowed us to tune into 12 satellite tv for pc channels. My favourite was Cartoon Community. Then, throughout my teenage years, this identical uncle launched me to the web via dial-up modems. I bear in mind utilizing Yahoo Mail with its 4 megabytes of storage, studying information from around the globe, and studying in regards to the Chandra X-ray telescope from NASA’s web site.
That openness didn’t final. As web use unfold within the early 2000s, the Iranian authorities started reshaping the community itself. Not like the extremely distributed networks in the US or Europe, the place hundreds of suppliers change visitors throughout many impartial routes, Iran’s connection to the worldwide web is comparatively centralized. Most worldwide visitors passes via a small variety of gateways managed by state-linked telecom operators. That structure offers authorities uncommon leverage: By limiting or withdrawing these connections, they’ll sharply cut back the nation’s entry to the surface world.
Over the previous decade, Iran has expanded this management via what it calls the National Information Network, a domestically routed system designed to maintain information contained in the nation at any time when potential. Many authorities companies, banking programs, and native platforms are hosted on this inner community. During times of unrest, entry to the worldwide web could be throttled or lower off whereas parts of this home community proceed to operate.
The federal government started its censorship marketing campaign by redirecting or blocking web sites. As web use grew, it adopted extra subtle approaches. For instance, the Telecommunication Company of Iran makes use of a way referred to as deep packet inspection to research the content material of information packets in actual time. This methodology allows it to establish and block particular sorts of visitors, corresponding to VPN connections, messaging apps, social media platforms, and banned web sites.
The Stealth of Satellite tv for pc Transmissions
Toosheh’s communication workaround builds on a historical past of satellite tv for pc TV adoption in Center Jap and North African nations. By the early 2000s, satellite tv for pc dishes had been frequent in Iran; at present the vast majority of households in Iran have entry to satellite tv for pc TV regardless of its official prohibition.
Not like subscription companies corresponding to DirecTV and Dish Community, “free-to-air” satellite tv for pc TV broadcasts are unencrypted and could be obtained by anybody with a dish and receiver—no subscription required. As a result of the alerts are open, customers can even seize and retailer the information they carry, quite than merely watching it stay. Tech-savvy individuals discovered that they may use a digital video broadcasting (DVB) card—a chunk of {hardware} that connects to a pc and tunes into satellite tv for pc frequencies—to remodel a private pc right into a satellite tv for pc receiver. This fashion, they may watch and retailer media regionally in addition to obtain information from devoted channels.
Many Iranian residents have free-to-air satellite tv for pc dishes, like those on this condominium constructing in Tehran, and may thus obtain Toosheh transmissions, giving them a lifeline throughout web blackouts.Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Photos
Toosheh, a Persian phrase that interprets to “knapsack,” is the brainchild of Mehdi Yahyanejad, an Iranian-American technologist and entrepreneur. Yahyanejad cofounded NetFreedom Pioneers in 2012. He proposed that the satellite-computer connections enabled by a DVB card might be re-created in software program, eliminating the necessity for specialised {hardware}. He added a easy digital interface to the software program to make it straightforward for anybody to make use of. The subsequent breakthrough got here when the NFP staff developed a brand new switch protocol that tips peculiar satellite tv for pc receivers into downloading information alongside audio and video content material. Thus, Toosheh was born.
Satellite tv for pc TV makes use of a file system referred to as an MPEG transport stream that permits a number of audio, video, or information layers to be packaged right into a single stream file. If you tune in to a satellite tv for pc channel and choose an audio choice or closed captions, you’re accessing information saved in several components of this stream. The NFP staff’s perception was that, by piggybacking on one among these layers, Toosheh may ship an MPEG stream that included paperwork, movies, and extra.
HOW TOOSHEH WORKS: At NetFreedom Pioneers, content material curators pull collectively recordsdata—information articles, movies, audio, and software program [1]. Toosheh’s encoder software program [2] compresses the recordsdata right into a bundle, in .ts format, creating an MPEG transport stream [3]. From there, it’s uploaded to a server for transmission [4] through a free-to-air TV channel on a Yahsat satellite tv for pc that’s positioned over the Center East to offer regional protection [5]. Satellite tv for pc receivers [6] immediately seize the information streams, that are downloaded to computer systems, smartphones, and different units, and decoded by Toosheh software program [8].Chris Philpot
A satellite tv for pc receiver can’t inform the distinction between our information and regular satellite tv for pc audio and video information because it solely “sees” the MPEG streams, not what’s encoded on them. This implies the information could be downloaded and browse, watched, and saved on native units corresponding to computer systems, smartphones, or storage units. What’s extra, the system is solely non-public: Nobody can detect whether or not somebody has obtained information via Toosheh; there are not any traceable logs of person exercise.
Toosheh doesn’t present web entry, however quite delivers curated information via satellite tv for pc know-how. The elemental distinction lies in the way in which customers work together with the system. Not like conventional web companies, the place you kind a request into your browser and obtain information in response, Toosheh operates extra like a mix of radio and tv, presenting info in a magazine-like format. Customers don’t make requests; as a substitute, they obtain 1 to five gigabytes of prepackaged, fastidiously chosen information.
Entry to info isn’t solely about information or politics, however about publicity to prospects.
Throughout this 12 months’s web blackout, we distributed official statements from Iranian opposition chief Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and the U.S. authorities. We offered first-aid tutorials for medics and injured protesters. We despatched uncensored information experiences from BBC Persian, Iran Worldwide, IranWire, VOA Farsi, and others. We additionally shared important software program packages together with anticensorship and antisurveillance instruments, together with how-to guides to assist individuals securely connect with Starlink satellite tv for pc terminals, permitting them to remain protected and nameless as they despatched their very own communications.
The right way to Fight Sign Interference
As a result of Toosheh depends on one-way satellite tv for pc broadcasts, it evades the same old ways governments use to dam web entry. Nonetheless, it stays weak to satellite signal jamming.
The Iranian authorities is infamous for deploying sign jamming, particularly in bigger cities. In 2009, the federal government used uplink interference, which assaults the satellite tv for pc in orbit by beaming sturdy noise within the frequency of the satellite tv for pc’s receiver. This makes it unimaginable for the satellite tv for pc to tell apart the knowledge it’s alleged to obtain. Nonetheless, as a result of such a assault briefly disables your complete satellite tv for pc, Iran was threatened with worldwide sanctions and in 2012 stopped utilizing the strategy .
A graph of community connectivity in Iran reveals that on 9 January 2026, web entry dropped from almost 100% to 0. Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto/Getty Photos
The present methodology, referred to as terrestrial jamming, makes use of antennas put in at increased elevations than the encircling buildings to beam sturdy noise over a selected space within the frequency vary of family receivers. This assault is efficient in conserving a number of the packets from arriving and damaging others, successfully jamming the transmission. But it surely’s short-range and requires vital energy, so it’s unimaginable to implement nationwide. There are at all times individuals someplace who can nonetheless watch TV, obtain from Toosheh, or tune right into a satellite tv for pc radio regardless of the jamming. Even so, we wished a workaround that might preserve our transmissions broadly accessible.
NFP’s answer was so as to add redundancy, related in precept to a data-storage method referred to as RAID (redundant array of impartial disks). As an alternative of sending each bit of information as soon as, we ship additional info that permits lacking or corrupted packets to be reconstructed. Underneath regular circumstances, we regularly use 5 % of our bandwidth for this redundancy. During times of lively jamming, we enhance that to as a lot as 25 to 30 %, enhancing the probabilities that customers can get well full recordsdata regardless of interference.
From Disaster Response to Public Entry
Toosheh initially got here on-line in 2015 in Iran and Afghanistan. Its full potential, nevertheless, was first realized through the 2019 protests in Iran, which noticed probably the most widespread web shutdown previous to the blackout this 12 months. Wired referred to as the 2019 shutdown “probably the most extreme disconnection” tracked by NetBlocks in any nation when it comes to its “technical complexity and breadth.” Our know-how helped hundreds of individuals keep knowledgeable. We despatched essential native updates, legal-aid guides, digital safety instruments, and impartial information to satellite tv for pc receivers everywhere in the nation, seeing a sixfold enhance in our person base.
When that wave of protests subsided, the federal government allowed some communication companies to return. Folks had been once more in a position to entry the free web utilizing VPNs and different antifilter software program that allowed them to bypass restrictions. Toosheh then grew to become a public entry level for information, instructional materials, and leisure past authorities filtering.
Toosheh’s influence is commonly private. A touring trainer in western Iran instructed NFP that he commonly distributed Toosheh recordsdata to college students in distant villages. One package deal included footage of feminine athletes competing within the Olympic Video games, one thing by no means broadcast in Iran. For one younger woman, it was the primary time she realized girls may compete professionally in sports activities. That second underscores a broader fact: Entry to info isn’t solely about information or politics, however about publicity to prospects.
The Value of Toosheh
Not like internet-based programs, Toosheh’s operational value stays fixed whatever the variety of customers. A single TV satellite tv for pc in geostationary earth orbit, deployed and maintained by a global firm corresponding to Eutelsat, can broadcast to a whole continent with no enhance in value to audiences. What’s extra, the startup value for customers isn’t excessive: A satellite tv for pc dish and receiver in Iran prices lower than US $50, which is inexpensive to many. And it prices nothing for individuals to make use of Toosheh’s service and obtain its recordsdata.
We goal not simply to construct a software for censorship circumvention, however to redefine entry itself.
Nonetheless, working the service is dear: NetFreedom Pioneers pays tens of hundreds of {dollars} a month for satellite tv for pc bandwidth. We had obtained funding from the U.S. State Division, however in August of 2025, that funding ended, forcing us to droop companies in Iran.
Then the December protests occurred, and broadcasting to Iran grew to become an pressing precedence. To show Toosheh again on, we wanted roughly $50,000 a month. With the assist of a handful of personal donors, we had been in a position to meet these prices and maintain operations in Iran for just a few months, although our future there and elsewhere is unsure.
Satellites Towards Censorship
Toosheh’s revival in Iran got here alongside NFP’s ongoing assist for deployments of Starlink, a satellite tv for pc web service that permits customers to attach on to satellites quite than counting on home networks, which the federal government can shut down. Not like Toosheh’s one-way broadcasts, Starlink supplies full two-way web entry, enabling customers to ship messages, add movies, and talk with the surface world.
In 2022, we began gathering donations to purchase Starlink terminals for Iran. We have now delivered greater than 300 of the roughly 50,000 there, enabling residents to ship encrypted updates and movies to us from contained in the nation. As a result of the know-how is banned by the federal government, entry stays restricted and carries danger; Iranian authorities have not too long ago arrested Starlink customers and sellers. And in contrast to Toosheh’s receive-only broadcasts, Starlink terminals transmit alerts again to orbit, making a radio footprint that may probably be detected.
The web shutdown in Iran continued after the assaults by Israel and the US started in late February, stopping Iranians from speaking with the surface world and with each other.Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu/Getty Photos
Trying forward, we envision Toosheh changing into a foundational a part of world digital resilience. It’s uncensored, untraceable, and proof against authorities shutdowns. As a result of Toosheh is downlink solely, it could possibly generally really feel laborious to clarify the worth of this know-how to these residing within the free world, these accustomed to open web entry. But, individuals residing below censorship have few different decisions when there’s a digital blackout.
At present, NFP is creating new options like clever content material curation and routinely prioritizing information packages primarily based on geographic or situational wants. And we’re experimenting with native sharing instruments that enable customers who obtain Toosheh broadcasts to redistribute these recordsdata through Wi-Fi hotspots or different offline networks, which may lengthen the system’s attain to catastrophe zones, battle areas, and climate-impacted areas the place infrastructure could also be destroyed.
We’re additionally taking a look at different use circumstances. Following the Taliban’s return to energy in Afghanistan, NetFreedom Pioneers designed a satellite-based system to ship instructional supplies. Our objective is to allow non-public, large-scale distribution of coursework to anybody—together with the women who’re banned from Afghanistan’s colleges. The system is technically prepared however has but to safe funding for deployment.
We goal not simply to construct a software for censorship circumvention, however to redefine entry itself. Whether or not in an Iranian metropolis below surveillance, a Guatemalan village with out web, or a refugee camp in East Africa, Toosheh provides a robust and sensible mannequin for delivering very important info with out counting on weak or costly networks.
Toosheh is a reminder that innovation doesn’t need to imply complexity. Generally, probably the most transformative concepts are the best, like delivering information via the sky, quietly and affordably, into the palms of those that want it most.
From Your Web site Articles
Associated Articles Across the Internet
