As massive anti-government protests sweep across Iran amid a brutal regime crackdown—including a near-total internet blackout, widespread civilian killings, and economic collapse — Elon Musk’s SpaceX has stepped up dramatically by making Starlink satellite internet free for users in the country. This bold move provides a critical lifeline, allowing protesters and citizens to bypass government restrictions, share evidence of atrocities, communicate with the outside world, and organize despite severe jamming attempts and severe risks (including potential execution for using unauthorized terminals).
Now, mounting pressure is building on Apple to follow Musk’s lead. With iPhones widely used in Iran (despite high costs and past import hurdles), activists, a U.S. Congressman (Rep. Buddy Carter), and others are urgently calling on the company to enable its satellite-based messaging feature — available on iPhone 14 and newer models — for Iranian users. This would allow texting without cellular or WiFi service, helping people contact family and report regime violence during the blackout. Apple’s current satellite texting is limited to select countries like the US, Canada, Mexico, and Japan, and the company has not yet responded publicly to these demands. The contrast highlights how tech giants can become pivotal in humanitarian crises, with Starlink already proving transformative—now the spotlight is on Apple to act swiftly and expand access to save lives.
Rebecca Heilweil for Fast Company:
The office of Rep. Buddy Carter, a Republican from Georgia, confirmed to Fast Company that they’d been in touch with Apple about opening up satellite messaging—which lets iPhone users send messages even when there is no wifi or cellular service—in the country, though they didn’t say what response, if any, they might have received from the company. That outreach comes after, on Wednesday, Carter called on the company to do so publicly.
Some activists have called for Apple to turn on satellite-based messaging, a service that the company is quickly rolling out. One of these calls, which as of Thursday night racked up nearly half a million views on X, reads: “During this nationwide blackout, the brutal killing of civilians has started in the past 24 hours. We urgently call on Apple to enable Satellite Messaging for users inside Iran, or confirm whether the service is already active and functioning without interference.”
“Communication is a lifeline. Lives depend on it,” the person added.
It isn’t immediately clear if this is something Apple can do, or what Apple might have already turned on in Iran.
When asked about SpaceX and Starlink, a spokesperson for the State Department [told] Fast Company on Wednesday, the administration “is committed to helping to preserve and protect the free flow of information by the most effective means to the people of Iran in the face of the Iranian regime’s brutal repression.”
MacDailyNews Take: Carter’s post on X:
Iran has gone nearly a week without access to the internet and phone calls, with thousands of protestors reportedly murdered.@Apple, the leading phone brand in the world, must enable satellite messaging for Iran so they can message family and report atrocities being committed…
— Buddy Carter (@RepBuddyCarter) January 14, 2026
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Ridiculous article. Total nonsense.
Concocted imaginary pressure.
Yawn.
WTF???? are u living under a rock… or do u have a rock as a brain!?
It is not, I repeat NOT, a trivial thing to make current iPhones able to communicate through satellites at more than SMS. It is not just a simple patch to the OS. It is not something that Apple can just turn on more than the capabilities the iPhones already have.
I’ve been doing satellite communication work for well over three decades. I’m THE guy who got the U.S. FCC and ITU to allow two way communications by the end user (home and business) through satellites for the first time. I’m THE guy who did the first multi-band authorization in Canada for a single constellation of satellites. I’m the guy who spearheaded several firsts in end user satellite communications. I know how this all works.
Anyone who claims you can take a current iPhone (even an iPhone 17 Pro Max — let alone an iPhone 16 or iPhone 15 of which there are many in use) and with a trivial software patch or a simple change in iPhone authorizations make it do more than SMS through satellites is either a) lying or b) has no idea how the physics works.
Such things will eventually come in future iPhones (hint: maybe within this calendar year), but not today. Unless you have a ton of “unobtanium” in your pocket you’d care to share with Apple.
You are correct I also worked in satellite engineering for about 10 years before moving on to designing and building internet infrastructure for several government departments and large corporations as well as spending 3 years at Apple as a telecommunications engineer. People demanding that Apple do something that their devices don’t do is ridiculous
cook leave now join the trump administration
Apple should turn on satellite SMS so that Mossad agents can coordinate their regime change efforts, as Mike Pompeo would like?
https://x.com/mikepompeo/status/2007180411638620659
I don’t think Apple should get into the regime change game. The blowback from the Global South would not be good for sales. Not worth it.
You nailed it. It is all about helping Israel destroy just one more neighbor. Just like the commercial – “Just like an evil genocidal assassinating lying cheating stealing neighbor, Israel is there.”
Your antisemitism is your immediate downfall. No joke.
The world Jewish population is about the size of Los Angeles County. Remove the mothers, children, and elderly from the powerful players, you then have two opposite groups politically left and right that are opposed to each other. Then you have the religious right group that is opposed to Israel for religious reasons.
So this tiny final subset is important to the world, compared to a billion Muslims, a billion Christians, a billion Chinese and a billion Africans? You must have extreme hatred in your soul, my friend.
Israel is a capitalist democracy in the Middle East, now joined by Iraq. Our two allies there.