In Iran, where the government has barred internet access due to months of anti-government demonstrations against the country's obligatory headscarf law, billionaire Elon Musk has revealed that 100 satellite internet terminals are operational. 

Musk had promised to roll out Starlink to the country in September, but that date has passed as the Iranian authorities imposed increasingly severe access restrictions in reaction to widespread protests. Earlier this week, Elon Musk tweeted, '100 Starlinks active in Iran.'

 Starlink offers internet connection to consumers below via more than 2,000 teeny satellites orbiting just a few hundred kilometres above Earth. The land-based terminals are then linked to the basic routers that create tiny WiFi hotspots. After delivering thousands of Starlink terminals to Ukraine in the days following Russia's invasion, Musk gained a hero's following there earlier this year.

 20,000 of the little white receivers are currently dispersed throughout Ukraine. On Monday, Twitter CEO Musk replied to a user whose video they claimed was taken in the 'streets of Iran,' where there is now 'more freedom for women to choose whether or not they cover their hair.'

 The post appears to refer to the protests that broke out around the world when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman, was slain in September after being arrested in Tehran for allegedly breaking the city's strict dress code. Iranians have long used VPNs to access websites that are prohibited in their country, long before Twitter was barred in Iran.

 Even government employees have Twitter accounts, including the foreign minister. Protests erupted in the Islamic Republic in the wake of the death in police custody in September of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been detained by the morality police for “unsuitable dress.”