Buenos Aires - February 12, 2026 - Total News Agency - TNA — A report by The Wall Street Journal today made a geopolitical and technological impact: the Donald Trump administration would have discreetly helped introduce around 6,000 Starlink satellite internet terminals into Iran, with the aim of keeping opponents and activists connected after the regime severely restricted internet access during a wave of anti-government protests. The qualitative leap described in the report — moving thousands of terminals into a hostile country amidst repression — elevates the level of confrontation and leaves an immediate question: if the operation existed, what degree of participation did state agencies have, what logistical routes were used, and what were the mechanisms for distributing equipment without massive exposure? The Iranian regime, for its part, usually presents these actions as direct interference and proof of a 'hybrid war' to destabilize the state. In Iran, where internet control is a structural part of governance, the emergence of an alternative channel like Starlink poses a greater challenge. Under that reading, satellite connectivity is not a service, but a platform to coordinate protests, organize clandestine networks, and transmit information abroad without passing through national filters. If confirmed, this would be one of the largest 'internet freedom' operations attributed to the United States on Iranian territory, in a terrain especially sensitive for Tehran, which uses blackouts and blockages as a central tool for social control. According to journalistic reconstruction, the delivery of terminals sought to evade the usual pattern of digital repression: when conflict intensifies, the Iranian state limits mobile networks, blocks platforms, and restricts international connectivity to prevent the organization of marches and the circulation of images abroad. On the legal plane, the official message is unequivocal: the use of unauthorized satellite internet is prohibited, and the state associates it with espionage or collaboration with foreign powers. The backdrop is the silent expansion of Starlink in Iran through smuggling. First, it erodes the 'blackout' as an instrument of coercion: if protesters maintain communication channels, control of the street becomes more costly. Second, it enables the dissemination of audiovisual evidence of repression, detentions, and state violence, an element that conditions international reactions and fuels sanctions or diplomatic pressures. Third, it introduces a component of technological warfare: the regime must not only pursue opposition leaders but also detect hardware, track signals, and deploy electronic countermeasures. In parallel to the version about the shipment of terminals, recent weeks saw an increase in reports of an Iranian response focused on seizure and blocking. Various media reported operations to confiscate devices and public warnings about sanctions, under the argument that possessing satellite terminals constitutes a threat to national security. This perception explains the aggressiveness of the response: confiscation, persecution, penalization, and the deployment of technical capabilities to neutralize the signal. Beyond the political dispute, the story leaves an operational conclusion: modern protest depends on communication, and communication has become a battlefield. In that context, access to satellite internet offers an alternative path difficult to control by traditional mechanisms, as it does not depend on local telecommunications infrastructure. This universe would explain why, even before the report on the 6,000 units, Tehran was already treating the phenomenon as a battle for territorial and digital control. In Washington, the episode is read as part of a toolkit of unconventional pressure. Donald Trump had expressed publicly, in the context of blackouts, that he would evaluate options to help restore connectivity, and his administration had already promoted technological support programs against censorship on other occasions. Amidst structural restrictions, satellite access has become a coveted asset by urban sectors, activist networks, and small communities trying to maintain connectivity during crises. The technology, however, is not neutral: its deployment in protest scenarios usually becomes a factor of power, because it alters the flow of information, reduces informational isolation, and allows real-time coordination even under censorship. The strategic relevance of the episode lies in three immediate effects. If the version of the shipment of thousands of terminals is confirmed, the United States would have sought to alter that balance at the most sensitive moment: when the regime tries to isolate the population to regain control of the street. In that line, Iranian police recently announced seizures of Starlink equipment within the framework of the blackouts, while specialized analysts described attempts at interference and signal degradation through 'jamming' and detection techniques. Estimates cited by the international press went so far as to suggest that tens of thousands of terminals could be circulating in the country, although actual access remains concentrated due to costs, risks, and availability.
