On Thursday evening, Tehran was hit by a fierce wave of attacks. Residents reported low-flying fighter jets and massive explosions. Early Friday, the Israeli military said it had carried out wide-scale strikes on the “heart of Tehran,” targeting “infrastructure belonging to the Iranian regime.”
Earlier, US President Donald Trump again postponed threats to strike Iran’s energy facilities if Tehran did not lift its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The US has deployed thousands of troops to the Middle East, and a ground invasion of Iran has not been ruled out.
Iran had earlier claimed it launched missile and drone attacks on targets in Israel and on US bases in several Gulf states. State television said the country was close to defeating its enemies and ending the war. But many Iranians have stopped trusting state media. “We don’t watch state television anymore,” one Tehran resident wrote in a group chat. “They only broadcast for themselves and their supporters,” wrote another.
Iran’s state broadcaster, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), has long lost influence. A Tehran survey by the Iranian Students Polling Agency found that even before the Twelve-Day War between Iran and Israel in June 2025, only 12.5% relied on IRIB for news, down from 51% in 2017. Even after a roughly 50% budget increase in March 2025, the public broadcaster has not regained trust.
Many Iranians now get news from Persian-language outlets abroad, foreign state broadcasters such as DW, or social media—especially Instagram, which has about 24 million users in Iran. These platforms are officially banned, but many use virtual private networks (VPNs) to reach them. A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel from a device to a remote server to access the wider internet.
Since the US-Israel war with Iran began on February 28, Iranian authorities have again shut down the internet. VPNs often require satellite internet providers like Starlink to work, but Starlink is banned and usually far more expensive—sometimes up to ten times the normal price. The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence says hundreds of Starlink systems have been tracked and confiscated.
Internet expert Keyvan Samadi told DW that Starlink devices emit signals to connect with satellites, and specialized equipment can detect those signals. Radio direction-finding can then locate devices approximately. Media reports say hundreds of people have been arrested since the war began.
It’s unclear how many banned systems remain in use. People in Iran told DW that VPN services are still available but costly. Despite financial strains from the war and closed businesses, many were willing to pay more to keep access to information.
Beyond the physical danger of missile and drone attacks, internet blackouts add psychological stress. People lose contact with relatives and face unbearable uncertainty about what is happening.
This article, to which Danyal Babayani contributed, was translated from German.