The CEO of SpaceX and the world's richest man, Elon Musk, promised on Friday to activate SpaceX satellite service, Starlink, in Iran to give Iranians access to the internet despite government restrictions.
There had been protests across Iranian cities following the death of an Iranian woman who died in police custody after being accused of not wearing a hijab properly. Several women were seen cutting their hair and burning hijabs on the streets across the country to protest Mahsa Amini's death.
Iranian government in response to the protest, shut down the country's internet service on Thursday thereby restricting the world's access to the ongoing protests in the country.
Elon Musk made the statement in response to the post by the US secretary of states, Anthony Blinken, who said that the US had taken action to lift sanctions on Iran's internet service to help Iranian protesters.
"We took action today to advance internet freedom and the free flow of information for the Iranian people, issuing a General License to provide them greater access to digital communications to counter the Iranian government's censorship," Blinken stated.
In response to Mr. Blinken's statement, Elon Musk said "Activating Starlink".
The US Treasury Department, before Blinken's tweet, already made a statement about providing internet service to Iran to help the protest against the death of Mahsa Amini. Starlink was recommended during the department's statement on Friday.
This is not the first time Elon Musk is making moves to provide internet services to conflicting areas.
Musk had made moves to help Ukraine beat internet challenges during the ongoing war with Russia. However, the plan to give Iranians access to the internet is good news for the Iranian people whose government had restricted their access to the internet.
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