The Trump administration covertly sent thousands of Starlink terminals into Iran after the regime’s brutal crackdown on demonstrations last month, U.S. officials said, an effort to keep dissidents online following Tehran’s stifling of internet access.

After Iranian authorities smothered mounting unrest in January by killing thousands of protesters and severely cutting internet connectivity, the U.S. smuggled roughly 6,000 of the satellite-internet kits into the country, the first time the U.S. has directly sent Starlink into Iran.

The State Department had purchased nearly 7,000 Starlink terminals in earlier months—with most bought in January—to help antiregime activists circumvent internet shut-offs in Iran, officials said. The purchase came after senior Trump administration appointees decided to divert some funds from other internet-freedom initiatives inside Iran to the purchasing of Starlink terminals instead.

For months, senior officials pushed Starlink as the best way to support antiregime movements inside Iran alongside or instead of virtual private networks, known more commonly as VPNs. Mora Namdar, who until December led State’s Middle East bureau, in August sent a memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging the acquisition of Starlink expressly for delivery to Iran. While her bureau “has funded a variety of VPNs and other internet freedom technologies, it is useless when the internet is shut down,” she wrote.

Some 30 million Iranians used U.S.-funded VPNs during the country’s widespread protests in 2022, according to internal State Department data. State Department officials also estimate that around 20 percent of Iranians were still able to get limited internet access with U.S.-funded VPN services during the 12-day war in June 2025, when the Iranian government issued a nearly full-scale internet blackout following U.S. and Israeli strikes.

Tehran has repeatedly accused Washington, without evidence, of playing a role in fomenting popular dissent and organizing last month’s nationwide demonstrations in the country of 90 million people. Iranians were protesting years of economic mismanagement, a weakening currency and hard-line rule.

The U.S. has denied any connection to the uprising, though the Starlink operation shows the Trump administration has done more to support antiregime efforts than has been previously known.

A handful of American civil-society groups also help Iranians acquire Starlink, officials said.