Iran Cuts Internet to 1% in Sophisticated Shutdown (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: This isn't the first time that Iran has shut down their internet, but experts say this time around is a lot more sophisticated. Iran's connectivity dropped significantly on January 8th, effectively cutting some 90 million people off from the outside world.

[00:00:14] Speaker 2: Service is really highly limited. There's a baseline of connectivity around 1% of ordinary levels.

[00:00:21] Speaker 1: What is that 1%?

[00:00:23] Speaker 2: We understand that authorities have reserved an amount of connectivity for their own uses. This might be to track what's happening externally, outside the country, or to publish posts and online content to tell their version of events to the outside world.

[00:00:41] Speaker 1: Toker says in the past many Iranians were able to get around these restrictions using software like VPNs. Those methods no longer work reliably, so some people have placed their hope in satellite internet terminals like Elon Musk's Starlink, which can bypass local telecom networks.

[00:00:57] Speaker 3: Using a Starlink itself is not a difficult thing to do. It's just you have a satellite, you're putting it, you connect some cable and push some buttons and that's it. The problem is you need to have that device in a country like Iran. We're talking about an authoritarian country. In this context, even purchasing this kind of technology is a big challenge.

[00:01:23] Speaker 1: Experts also say there's evidence to show that Iran is disrupting the satellite connection itself. It's something that we've never seen this regime do in the past. It is worth mentioning that none of these options replace a fully functioning internet and they all carry serious risk.