SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company would seek an exemption from sanctions against Iran to provide the firm’s Starlink satellite broadband service in the country.
Musk made this statement on Twitter at a time when large-scale protests were taking place in Iran over the death of a woman in police custody. Some on Twitter asked Musk to provide a satellite-based internet station.
Access to social media and some content is strictly restricted in Iran, and internet monitoring group NetBlocks reported an “almost total” disruption to internet connectivity in the capital of the Kurdish region on Monday, linking it to the protests.
Iran’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology could not immediately be reached for comment. The Foreign Ministry, Iran’s mission to the United Nations and the United States Bureau of Industry and Security did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Musk did not say which country Starlink would receive exemptions from, but Iran faces broad-based sanctions.
SpaceX aims to rapidly expand Starlink, and is competing with rival satellite communications companies including OneWeb and Amazon.com Inc’s ( AMZN.O ) yet-to-launch Project Kuiper.
