On 8 January 2026, the Iranian authorities imposed a near-total communications shutdown. It was the nation’s first full data blackout: For weeks, the web was off throughout all provinces whereas providers together with the government-run intranet, VPNs, textual content messaging, cell 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 totally 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 data flows dry up.
The unique January shutdown got here amid nationwide protests over the deepening financial disaster and political repression, during which hundreds of thousands of individuals chanted antigovernment slogans within the streets. Whereas Iranian protests have turn into frequent lately, this was one of the important uprisings for the reason that Islamic Revolution in 1979. The federal government responded shortly and brutally. One report put the dying toll at more than 7,000 confirmed deaths and greater than 11,000 underneath investigation. Many sources consider 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 extraordinary satellite tv for pc TV alerts. In the course of the nationwide data vacuum, our know-how, known as Toosheh, delivered real-time updates into Iran, providing a lifeline to hundreds of thousands starved of trusted data.
How Iran Censors the Web
I joined NetFreedom Pioneers, a nonprofit targeted on anticensorship know-how, in 2014. Censorship in Iran was a defining function of my youth within the Nineties. After the Islamic Revolution, most Iranians started to steer double lives—one at dwelling, 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 elements of the world, making it simpler for the federal government to limit the circulate of knowledge. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Photographs
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 dwelling 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 similar uncle launched me to the web by means of dial-up modems. I bear in mind utilizing Yahoo Mail with its 4 megabytes of storage, studying information from all over the world, and studying concerning 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. In contrast to the extremely distributed networks in america 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 by means of a small variety of gateways managed by state-linked telecom operators. That structure provides authorities uncommon leverage: By limiting or withdrawing these connections, they’ll sharply scale back the nation’s entry to the surface world.
Over the previous decade, Iran has expanded this management by means of 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 providers, banking techniques, and native platforms are hosted on this inner community. During times of unrest, entry to the worldwide web might be throttled or lower off whereas parts of this home community proceed to perform.
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 method known as deep packet inspection to investigate the content material of information packets in actual time. This technique permits it to determine and block particular varieties of visitors, comparable 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; as we speak nearly all of households in Iran have entry to satellite tv for pc TV regardless of its official prohibition.
In contrast to subscription providers comparable to DirecTV and Dish Community, “free-to-air” satellite tv for pc TV broadcasts are unencrypted and might be obtained by anybody with a dish and receiver—no subscription required. As a result of the alerts are open, customers may seize and retailer the info they carry, moderately than merely watching it dwell. 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 rework a private pc right into a satellite tv for pc receiver. This fashion, they may watch and retailer media domestically in addition to obtain information from devoted channels.
Many Iranian residents have free-to-air satellite tv for pc dishes, like those on this condo constructing in Tehran, and may thus obtain Toosheh transmissions, giving them a lifeline throughout web blackouts.Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Photographs
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 could possibly 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 following breakthrough got here when the NFP group developed a brand new switch protocol that tips extraordinary 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 known as an MPEG transport stream that permits a number of audio, video, or information layers to be packaged right into a single stream file. Whenever you tune in to a satellite tv for pc channel and choose an audio choice or closed captions, you’re accessing information saved in numerous elements of this stream. The NFP group’s perception was that, by piggybacking on considered one of 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] by way of 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 info 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 info might be downloaded and skim, watched, and saved on native units comparable to computer systems, smartphones, or storage units. What’s extra, the system is completely non-public: Nobody can detect whether or not somebody has obtained information by means of Toosheh; there aren’t any traceable logs of consumer exercise.
Toosheh doesn’t present web entry, however moderately delivers curated information by means of satellite tv for pc know-how. The basic distinction lies in the best way customers work together with the system. In contrast to conventional web providers, the place you sort a request into your browser and obtain information in response, Toosheh operates extra like a mixture of radio and tv, presenting data 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 data isn’t solely about information or politics, however about publicity to prospects.
Throughout this yr’s web blackout, we distributed official statements from Iranian opposition chief Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and the U.S. authorities. We supplied first-aid tutorials for medics and injured protesters. We despatched uncensored information stories from BBC Persian, Iran Worldwide, IranWire, VOA Farsi, and others. We additionally shared essential 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.
Fight Sign Interference
As a result of Toosheh depends on one-way satellite tv for pc broadcasts, it evades the standard techniques 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 robust noise within the frequency of the satellite tv for pc’s receiver. This makes it inconceivable for the satellite tv for pc to differentiate the data it’s alleged to obtain. Nonetheless, as a result of this sort of assault quickly disables the complete satellite tv for pc, Iran was threatened with worldwide sanctions and in 2012 stopped utilizing the tactic .
A graph of community connectivity in Iran exhibits that on 9 January 2026, web entry dropped from almost 100% to 0. Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto/Getty Photographs
The present technique, known as terrestrial jamming, makes use of antennas put in at increased elevations than the encompassing buildings to beam robust noise over a particular space within the frequency vary of family receivers. This assault is efficient in preserving a number of the packets from arriving and damaging others, successfully jamming the transmission. However it’s short-range and requires important energy, so it’s inconceivable to implement nationwide. There are all the time 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 needed a workaround that might hold our transmissions broadly accessible.
NFP’s resolution was so as to add redundancy, related in precept to a data-storage approach known as RAID (redundant array of impartial disks). As an alternative of sending each bit of information as soon as, we ship additional data that permits lacking or corrupted packets to be reconstructed. Beneath regular circumstances, we regularly use 5 p.c of our bandwidth for this redundancy. During times of energetic jamming, we enhance that to as a lot as 25 to 30 p.c, bettering the probabilities that customers can recuperate 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, nonetheless, was first realized in the course of the 2019 protests in Iran, which noticed essentially the most widespread web shutdown previous to the blackout this yr. Wired known as the 2019 shutdown “essentially the most extreme disconnection” tracked by NetBlocks in any nation by way of 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 all around the nation, seeing a sixfold enhance in our consumer base.
When that wave of protests subsided, the federal government allowed some communication providers to return. Individuals 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 turned a public entry level for information, instructional materials, and leisure past authorities filtering.
Toosheh’s affect is commonly private. A touring trainer in western Iran informed NFP that he frequently 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 reality: Entry to data isn’t solely about information or politics, however about publicity to prospects.
The Value of Toosheh
In contrast to internet-based techniques, Toosheh’s operational price stays fixed whatever the variety of customers. A single TV satellite tv for pc in geostationary earth orbit, deployed and maintained by a world firm comparable to Eutelsat, can broadcast to a complete continent with no enhance in price to audiences. What’s extra, the startup price for customers isn’t excessive: A satellite tv for pc dish and receiver in Iran prices lower than US $50, which is reasonably priced 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 providers in Iran.
Then the December protests occurred, and broadcasting to Iran turned an pressing precedence. To show Toosheh again on, we would have liked 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 a couple of months, although our future there and elsewhere is unsure.
Satellites In opposition to 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 moderately than counting on home networks, which the federal government can shut down. In contrast to Toosheh’s one-way broadcasts, Starlink offers 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 lately 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 doubtlessly be detected.
The web shutdown in Iran continued after the assaults by Israel and america started in late February, stopping Iranians from speaking with the surface world and with each other.Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu/Getty Photographs
Trying forward, we envision Toosheh turning into a foundational a part of world digital resilience. It’s uncensored, untraceable, and immune to authorities shutdowns. As a result of Toosheh is downlink solely, it will probably 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 underneath censorship have few different selections when there’s a digital blackout.
At present, NFP is creating new options like clever content material curation and robotically prioritizing information packages primarily based on geographic or situational wants. And we’re experimenting with native sharing instruments that permit customers who obtain Toosheh broadcasts to redistribute these recordsdata by way of Wi-Fi hotspots or different offline networks, which may prolong 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 ladies 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 underneath surveillance, a Guatemalan village with out web, or a refugee camp in East Africa, Toosheh affords a robust and sensible mannequin for delivering important data with out counting on weak or costly networks.
Toosheh is a reminder that innovation doesn’t should imply complexity. Generally, essentially the most transformative concepts are the only, like delivering information by means of the sky, quietly and affordably, into the fingers of those that want it most.
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