Smuggling signals out of Iran

Summary

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Click Here: "Smuggling signals out of Iran"

Podcast by Recorded Future News | Host: Dina Temple-Raston | Date: March 10, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on Iran’s sweeping internet blackouts during widespread protests and war, and the ingenious—and dangerous—measures Iranians are taking to reconnect with the world. Host Dina Temple-Raston carries listeners into the heart of the information void, exploring how government shutdowns are wielded as tools of control, how Starlink satellite dishes are smuggled and disguised, and how access to uncensored information shapes the very narratives of power, protest, and war.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power—and Peril—of Blackouts

• Governments control the story by controlling information.
  • Iran’s authorities responded to protests and US/Israeli airstrikes with total internet shutdowns. The result: domestic and global information darkness.
  • “When bombs fall and signals fade, the fight isn't only on the ground, it's over what the world even gets to see.” (Dena Temple-Raston, 00:44)
• Blackouts not only obscure events from the outside world—they fragment communication within Iran itself.
  • Even trusted landlines and simple calls no longer work.
  • Protests are reduced to rumors; even monumental news like the Supreme Leader’s death spreads painfully slowly.

2. Life Under Lockdown: Voices from Inside

• First-Hand Witness: Besad
  • Using a pseudonym to protect his safety (after a neighborhood child killed in protests), Besad recounts the surreal blend of daily life under bombardment and digital darkness.
  • “I try to be a witness to history and document what took place.” (Besad, 07:30)
  • Despite war and Nowruz approaching, most people try to maintain routines, though fear and uncertainty loom.
  • Communication devolves to word of mouth and spotty satellite TV.
• Difficulty in Receiving Critical Alerts
  • Israel attempted to send evacuation alerts via SMS, but with networks down, many never arrived.
  • Even state media confirmation of key events lagged far behind rumors.
  • “Many people spread the word through... phone conversations with relatives and friends. People who had access to satellite networks were getting outside information. But many ordinary citizens had doubts that it had actually happened.” (Besad, 09:52)

3. Smuggling Signals: Workarounds and the Starlink Underground

• The Rise of Starlink as Lifeline—and Risk
  • Ahmad Ahmadiyan, an Iranian expat leading the nonprofit Holistic Resilience, explains Starlink’s emergence as a vital workaround.
  • When the Iranian government throttled or cut the internet, demand for Starlink terminals skyrocketed despite the severe penalties if caught.
  • “There is a demand in Iran. There is a market building around this. Another shutdown could happen. A lot of people, their lifeline is depending on Starlink.” (Ahmad Ahmadiyan, 14:05)
• Creative Camouflage
  • Satellite dishes can’t hide like Wi-Fi routers; so people disguise them—especially as solar panels.
  • “They take the satellite dishes and make them look like solar panels. Something no one thinks twice about seeing on a roof. Which means something designed to collect sunlight now quietly is collecting signal instead.” (Dena Temple-Raston, 15:16)
• The Moment of Breakthrough
  • Ahmad recalls the emotional surge seeing protest videos escape the blackout.
  • “I had this glorious moment seeing that the Ayatollah was not successful in keeping people in dark.” (Ahmad Ahmadiyan, 15:56)

4. Narrative Wars: Information as Weapon

• Who gets to tell the story?
  • Once images and videos slip past the blackout, the government loses its monopoly on the narrative.
  • Even fragmented visibility undermines official versions of events.
• Global Parallels
  • The episode draws parallels to protests—and police shootings—in the US, showing how cell phone footage shifts public perception, not just in Iran but worldwide.
  • “Control the images and you control the story. Lose that control and the story may belong to everyone else.” (Dena Temple-Raston, 18:21)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On blackouts and control:
  “The Internet connects us, but it can go dark just when people need it most.”
  — Dena Temple-Raston, 00:21

• On spreading news during a blackout:
  “Many people spread the word through word of mouth, through phone conversations with relatives and friends... But many ordinary citizens had doubts that it had actually happened.”
  — Besad, 09:52

• On everyday life amid chaos:
  “A lot of people are trying to still have some form of normalcy while handling the daily chores after the recent bombing. I decided to go to work today because we need to earn a living.”
  — Besad, 09:09

• On smuggling Starlink:
  “You kind of call your electronics guy and this is just another thing that you ask him for, is that right?”
  — Dena Temple-Raston, 14:15
  “Exactly, yes.”
  — Ahmad Ahmadiyan, 14:21

• On seeing the first protest video emerge:
  “I just, I had this glorious moment seeing that the Ayatollah was not successful in keeping people in dark.”
  — Ahmad Ahmadiyan, 15:56

• On the stakes of visibility:
  “Because once images escape, the story no longer belongs only to the state.”
  — Dena Temple-Raston, 16:43
  “Control the images and you control the story. Lose that control and the story may belong to everyone else.”
  — Dena Temple-Raston, 18:21

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:44] — Framing the current blackout and the previous protests
• [07:30] — Interview with Besad: daily life, sources of information, atmosphere in Tehran
• [12:18] — Ahmad Ahmadiyan explains Starlink smuggling, innovation, and risks
• [15:56] — Emotional breakthrough: first videos escape the blackout
• [16:43–18:21] — Visibility, narrative control, global parallels
• [18:58-22:56] — News Briefs: Amazon cloud hit by Iranian drones, China's AI/economic plan, cyber escalation, Netflix's AI acquisition (not directly related but notable as context)

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Episode Takeaways

• In modern conflicts, access to digital communication is both a weapon and a shield.
• Iranians, faced with the world’s most sophisticated censorship, have found ways to stay connected—at immense personal and political risk.
• The struggle over who controls the story—government censors or ordinary citizens—can shape the course of history itself.
• As long as small signals can escape censorship, the truth has a fighting chance.

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Transcript

[Dena Temple Raston]

From recorded future news and prx, this is click here. When governments don't like what's being said, they don't always argue back. Sometimes they make it harder to see what's happening at all. When the US and Israeli strikes began rocking Iran, NetBlocks, an Internet monitoring group, reported connectivity collapsing and in some places to roughly 1% of normal levels after weeks, where a total shutdown made it incredibly difficult to establish what was going on. The Internet connects us, but it can go dark just when people need it most. I'm Dena Temple Raston and this is Click Here. We tell true stories about the people making and breaking our digital world. This week, when bombs fall and signals fade, the fight isn't only on the ground, it's over what the world even gets to see. Stay with us. Support for Click Here comes from Servil. It teams waste so much time on repetitive tickets, all those password resets, access requests and onboarding. With Servil you can cut 80% of that piece busy work, so all it has to do is write what they need in plain English and Servl makes it happen instantly. Consider onboarding new hires waiting around for days, managers asking for approvals. It gets pulled away from meaningful work. With Servol, a manager can simply request onboarding with a quick slack message and just like that, access happens in seconds automatically. With all the right approvals. It never even has to touch it. If I were starting a tech company, Servil would be a must have. It saves time and money and lets it focus on actual problems. That's why Servol powers the fastest growing companies in the world like Perplexity, Mercore, Verkada and Clay. Get your team out of the help desk and back to the work they enjoy. Book your free pilot at serval.com clickhere that's S-E-R-V-A-L.com/ click here.

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[Dena Temple Raston]

Most of the time. When protests erupt somewhere in the world, most of us can log on and watch for ourselves. Phone videos, live streams, clips that circle the globe within minutes. But when protests erupted across Iran late last year, there was almost nothing to see. No sustained live streams, no steady flow of cell phone videos, no single image you could point to and say, this is what's happening. And into that silence, the government stepped forward with its own version of events, making claims like, we're not shooting at protesters. Foreign agitators are. We have audio recordings of messages sent from outside the country to these terrorist elements to telling them, open fire while you are among the protesters. The lack of footage wasn't an accident. It was a strategy. This is the second time in three years Iran has faced nationwide protests. The first time in 2022, the government didn't shut off the Internet completely. Instead, it just slowed it down. Mobile data crawled. Even simple calls became difficult. We felt that for ourselves when we tried to reach a source in Tehran back then. Yes, I'm talking.

[Ahmad Ahmadiyan]

Can you hear me?

[Dena Temple Raston]

Yes, I can hear you. This is a young Iranian man. We'll call Amin.

[Ahmad Ahmadiyan]

Yeah, give me a second. I'm going to do it.

[Dena Temple Raston]

Okay, thank you. Oops, he just left. Back then, the goal wasn't total silence. It was friction. Fast forward to 2026. Iran's Internet didn't just degrade this time, it just stopped responding. Phones rang but never connected. Messages stalled mid sent, which meant the protests that swept across Iran in January were were reduced to rumor for anyone outside the country. Authorities shut down the Internet and telephone lines late on Thursday, where a total shutdown made it incredibly difficult to establish what was going on. For people inside Iran, the blackout didn't just hide events from the outside world. It made it difficult for people inside the country to understand what was happening around them. And then the crisis escalated. Israeli and American airstrikes began in late February, hitting targets across the country. And at that moment, when information mattered most, Iran's network was already flatlining down to just 1% of normal levels. According to NetBlocks, a global Internet monitor. In other words, a country of nearly 90 million people was suddenly navigating protests, war and political upheaval almost completely dark. And while President Trump called on Iranians to rise up, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. That's a complicated thing to do. When the Internet is vanished, how do you organize if messages won't send, if platforms won't load, and even landlines can't be counted on? Still, with some patience, we managed to find a fragile connection inside Iran. A man in Tehran who agreed to describe what he's seeing around him. For safety, he asked us to use the name Besad.

[Besad]

I prefer using a pseudonym, which is the name of one of the kids in the neighborhood who was killed in the protests. I have been present at every protest that took place in the last 30 years, both as a protester and later as a social journalist. I try to be a witness to history and document what took place.

[Dena Temple Raston]

Now, as bombs fall across the country, Bizad says Iranians are living through a version of events the outside world can barely see. News strikes across Tehran tonight as the U. S. Israeli war on Iran is expanding.

[Besad]

What you can observe looking out of the window are places that have been hit at various distances. Sometimes smoke or debris and sometimes clear skies. It really depends on what time of day the majority of people are at home. Fewer people have left Tehran, unlike Israel's 12 Day War, mostly because we are in middle of winter. People are not going out unless they have to. But we are coming up on Nowruz, so people have things to do.

[Dena Temple Raston]

Nowruz is the Persian New Year and Eid marks the end of Ramadan. Big holidays where families come together.

[Besad]

A lot of people are trying to still have some form of normalcy while handling the daily chores after the recent bombing. I decided to go to work today because we need to earn a living. The economy has to move forward, especially making ends meet.

[Dena Temple Raston]

Reliable information is scarce, which during a war means it's hard to know when airstrikes have happened or where new bombings might occur. Israel has sent evacuation alerts via text, but human rights groups say many Iranians never receive them because the networks are down. Even big news like the death of Iran's supreme leader travels really slowly.

[Besad]

Many people spread the word through word of mouth, through phone conversations with relatives and friends. People who had access to satellite networks were getting outside information. But many ordinary citizens had doubts that it had actually happened.

[Dena Temple Raston]

Eventually, state media confirmed it.

[Besad]

Many people whom I talked to after the passing Of Khamenei mentioned that they did not celebrate in the way they fantasized about it, Mostly because of the degree to which the war is taking place. And also it happened so fast, most

[Dena Temple Raston]

people figured the 86 year old Khamini would die a natural death, not die from US and Israeli missile strikes. So if Iran's Internet is essentially gone, how are people communicating at all? We'll find out after the break.

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[Dena Temple Raston]

It is called Internet. I use the world wide web information superhighway. Cyber security. Why do things go viral quick? Here in Iran, as in many places, connectivity isn't just a convenience, it's a lifeline. So when the state cuts the Internet, Iranians are forced to find other ways to communicate and stay informed. To understand how they do that, we turn to this guy.

[Ahmad Ahmadiyan]

I am Ahmad Ahmadiyan. I'm originally Iranian and currently I'm living in Los Angeles. And I'm the executive director of Holistic Resilience.

[Dena Temple Raston]

His nonprofit works on ways to keep people connected, even during Internet shutdowns. And he says the videos and updates that have made their way out of Iran were made possible by workarounds put in place years ago. Back in 2022, when demonstrators took to the streets, the Iranian government throttled the Internet. But it didn't just affect protesters, it affected everyone. People couldn't bank, businesses couldn't operate. Even buying food became difficult.

[Ahmad Ahmadiyan]

One day of disruption, just, you know, it's a disruption in their life. You know, they cannot bring bread to their tables.

[Dena Temple Raston]

So your point here is it wasn't just activists. It was a whole bunch of people.

[Ahmad Ahmadiyan]

Yes, that's the idea.

[Dena Temple Raston]

In places shaped by sanctions and scarcity, people tend to get inventive. When something disappears, they find another way. So when the Internet began vanishing back in 2022, many Iranians turned to something else. Starlink. Satellite Internet. Controlled not by Tehran, but by an American company. The government in Iran banned it almost immediately. People Caught using it risk arrest, sometimes worse. But that didn't stop demand smuggling. Starlink terminals quickly became a booming business. They arrived tucked inside boxes with iPhones and Xboxes, just another piece of contraband technology.

[Ahmad Ahmadiyan]

There is a demand in Iran. There is a market building around this. Another shutdown could happen. A lot of people, their lifeline is depending on Starlink.

[Dena Temple Raston]

So you kind of call your electronics guy and this is just another thing that you ask him for, is that right?

[Ahmad Ahmadiyan]

Exactly, yes.

[Dena Temple Raston]

Over time, the trickle became a pipeline. Researchers estimate thousands of Starlink terminals have made their way into Iran in just the past year. And Ahmad says that by most accounts, many of those connections are still working, even now during the war. But hiding the hardware that makes this possible is a lot harder. If you think about it, a WI fi router is pretty easy to hide. You can just tuck it into a closet. But a satellite dish, that's different. It has to sit outdoors. It has to face the sky so it announces itself. So Iranians got creative and learned how to disguise it, how to hide it

[Ahmad Ahmadiyan]

as a solar panel. Like, you know, using DIY methods, they

[Dena Temple Raston]

take the satellite dishes and make them look like solar panels. Something no one thinks twice about seeing on a roof. Which means something designed to collect sunlight now quietly is collecting signal instead. This is why when the government tried to shut down the Internet during the bloody protests in January, it wasn't entirely successful and why we're still seeing some images make their way out of Iran now. Ahmad still remembers sitting in his apartment in LA when the first video broke through. Proof that the satellite connections were doing what they were supposed to do.

[Ahmad Ahmadiyan]

It was a protest in Tehran, in one neighborhood in east of Tehran that was sent by a friend of mine over telegram that I saw the videos that like massive number of people are in the streets. I saw like old people, kids, you know, the young people, women, men. I mean, I, I laughed. I just, I had this glorious moment seeing that the Ayatollah was not successful in keeping people in dark.

[Dena Temple Raston]

Because once images escape, the story no longer belongs only to the state. And even now, as connectivity hovers near zero, a few videos still surface. Like people cheering from rooftops when the regime confirmed the Supreme Leader's death. Or a pro government crowd chanting. Iran is not the only place where images shape the narrative. Because once people can see events for themselves, the official line becomes harder to enforce. We've seen versions of that dynamic elsewhere too. Earlier this year in Minneapolis, federal agents shot and killed a 37 year old ICU nurse named Alex Preddy. Officials initially described the situation this this

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looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre

[Dena Temple Raston]

law enforcement, but cell phone video began circulating almost immediately. Not again. Are you kidding me? That guy's dead. For many viewers, that footage told a more complicated story. All he was doing was helping people park and get through safely. There was absolutely no danger to any of these agents. Very different circumstances from Iran. But the lesson about visibility is the same images change the narrative across countries, across political systems. The same pattern keeps repeating. Control the images and you control the story. Lose that control and the story may belong to everyone else. This is Click Here.

[Recorded Future News Host]

Looking for more of the cybersecurity and intelligence coverage you get on? Click Here. Then check out our sister publication the Record from Recorded Future News. You'll get breaking cyber news from reporters in New York, Washington, London and Kyiv, among others. And you'll see for yourself why it attracts hundreds of thousands of page views every month. Just go to TheRecord Media.

[Dena Temple Raston]

Here are some of the top tech stories making news this week. It's Tuesday, March 10th. First, the Cloud and what happens when war reaches out and touches it. Amazon says drone strikes hit 3 of its data centers in the region. The attack damaged buildings and disrupted power and Amazon says operations are significantly impaired. Iran launched drone strikes that hit Amazon data centers in the Gulf. The drones hit two Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and another in Bahrain, disrupting business across the region. The Strikes came after US and Israeli attacks killed Iran's supreme leader and more than 1,000 Iranian civilians, according to U S based human rights activist news agency. Iran responded by targeting airports, hotels, oil structure and now the cloud. Amazon says the drones damaged buildings, knocked out power and triggered fire suppression systems inside the facilities. The company hasn't said whether any employees were hurt. Amazon is advising customers to back up their critical data because the cloud isn't just software, it's building servers, power lines and now targets Next up, China's latest plan to win the tech race. China will outline how it plans to push forward in the technological race with the west and capitalize on high profile breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, space and robotics. Beijing just released a new five year plan, a 141 page blueprint for economic growth. The last plan focused on self sufficiency. This one goes a little further. China wants to accelerate development in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies and the plan calls for deploying robots and AI agents to address labor shortages. It also increases investment in quantum computing, 6G networks and the so called embodied AI, the technology that powers humanoid robots. Chinese officials also say they want breakthroughs in nuclear fusion. But the plan faces real obstacles. Among other things, China's workforce is aging, domestic consumption remains weak, and the country still depends heavily on foreign technology, especially American ships and aircraft. Still, Beijing sees today's global turbulence as an opening an opportunity not just to catch up to the United States and technology, but to even surpass it. Next, the cyber front of the war in the Middle East. US Financial firms are on heightened alert of a potential Iran linked cyber tanks. As the conflict intensifies, America's banks are watching for cyber attacks. Security teams across the financial sector say they're monitoring networks and coordinating closely with the US Government. US Intelligence officials warn that Iran aligned hacktivists could launch small scale cyber attacks against American networks. And that could include distributed denial of service attacks or DDoS attacks. They aren't that hard to do and they overwhelm servers and slow down websites. Iran linked hackers have done this before. In 2011, attackers targeted nearly 50 financial institutions and those attacks ran for more than a year, repeatedly knocking bank websites offline and blocking customers from accessing their accounts. Which is why banks are watching so closely now. Because in modern conflict, missiles aren't the only things that fly. Sometimes the first strikes arrive in packets. And finally, Hollywood meets artificial intelligence. There's a lot of skepticism around what is AI. How does it actually help filmmaking? Interpositive is a tool that's designed to

[Recorded Future News Host]

solve the specific problems that I'd encountered

[Dena Temple Raston]

as a filmmaker that connect you more to the filmmaking. Netflix has acquired Inter Positive, an AI powered filmmaking company founded by actor and director Ben Affleck. The deal signals a major step for the streaming giant as it pushes artificial intelligence deeper into the production process. As part of the agreement, Affleck has joined Netflix as a senior advisor. Interpositive built its AI model around the fundamentals of filmmaking, editing, shot selection and post production workflows. The goal? Streamline the editing process and give filmmakers more flexibility in the cutting room. Affleck says the system includes built in safeguards to prevent the AI from altering actor performances or overriding creative decisions. He says the final choices will still belong to human filmmakers. The announcement comes at a tense moment in Hollywood. Writers, actors and directors have all raised alarms about how studios might use AI. Netflix and Affleck say the goal is different, not to replace artists, but to give them new tools. Though in Hollywood as in tech, new tools often change the story. Click Here is a production of recorded Future News and prx. Today's show was written and produced by Megan Dietrich, Sean Powers, Erica Gaeda, Zach Hirsch and Casey Georgi. It was edited by Karen Duffin and Sarah Covedo and fact checked by Darren Ancrum. Original music is by Ben Levingston, with additional music from Blue Dot Sessions. Our staff writer is Lucas Riley, our illustrator is Megan Gough, and our sound designers and engineers are Jake Cook and Jesse Niswonger. Find us on X or Facebook at Click Here show or leave us a voice message at 661-5ch. Talk sometimes we'll turn those moments into reporting, sometimes into a conversation, and sometimes into a future story you'll hear on this show. I'm Dena Temple Reston, and thanks for listening. Support for this program comes from Recorded Future. In cybersecurity, the biggest risk isn't what can be seen, it's what gets missed. Recorded Future analyzes billions of signals to help organizations stay ahead of threats. Recorded Future Know what matters? Act first.

[Recorded Future News Host]

Looking for more of the cybersecurity and intelligence coverage you get on Click Here, Then check out our sister publication the Record from Recorded Future News. You'll get breaking cyber news from reporters in New York, Washington, London and Kyiv, among others. And you'll see for yourself why it attracts hundreds of thousands of page views every month. Just go to the Record Media.