To clarify I added ""technically" to the question: My immediate goal is finding a way to reach relatives during this blackout. More importantly, how to build a resilient, long-term communication fail-safe so we aren't cut off when we are connected and the next shutdown happens.

Most Iranians cannot effort Starlink.

To clarify I added ""technically" to the question: My immediate goal is finding a way to reach relatives during this blackout. More importantly, how to build a resilient, long-term communication fail-safe so we aren't cut off when we are connected and the next shutdown happens.

Sure, but that's not exactly the situation in Iran right now.

I think the issue here is not the books being read but rather the people being shot

The blackout itself isn't the primary issue; it's the information vacuum it creates. I haven't been able to reach my relatives for 104 hours, and that lack of transparency, not the lack of connectivity, is what is truly terrifying.

Because the internet blackout is being used to hide lethal force against protestors while the regime attempts to regain control.

Iran acknowledges mass protest deaths, but claims situation under control as Trump mulls response - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-protests-us-trump-death-to... - January 12th, 2026

Death toll from protests in Iran hits at least 544, activists say, as Trump says Iran wants to talk -https://apnews.com/article/iran-protests-us-israel-war-nucle... - January 11th, 2025

> The Washington D.C.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said that, as of Sunday, the 15th day of protests, at least 544 people had been killed, including 483 protesters and 47 members of the security forces. HRANA said the unrest had manifested in 186 cities across all of Iran's 31 provinces.

> The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), which is also based in the U.S., said over the weekend that it had "eyewitness accounts and credible reports indicating that hundreds of protesters have been killed across Iran during the current internet shutdown," accusing the regime of carrying out "a massacre."

> The Iran Human Rights (IHR) organization, based in Norway, said Saturday that it had confirmed at least 192 protesters were killed, but that the number could be over 2,000.

> "Unverified reports indicate that at least several hundreds, and according to some sources, more than 2,000 people may have been killed," IHR said in a statement, adding that according to its estimate, more than 2,600 protesters had been arrested.

(with that said, the US government is likely not impacted and has the intelligence they need for coordinating air strikes, if they elect to proceed with them)

It's not the biggest problem, but if your government is shooting masses of its own people in the streets and they are trying to keep the rest of the world from seeing it, it is a problem.