Hackers briefly seized Iran's state TV satellite feed and used it to beam out a message from the country's exiled crown prince urging security forces to stop firing on demonstrators, according to footage circulating online. The interruption hit multiple channels of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting on Sunday night, replacing regular programming with clips of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and graphics appealing directly to the army and police, per the AP. One onscreen message read, "Don't point your weapons at the people. Join the nation for the freedom of Iran." Pahlavi told soldiers to "join the people," adding, "You are the national army of Iran, not the Islamic Republic army."
Pahlavi's office confirmed the disruption but did not comment on who carried it out. Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency quoted state broadcasters as saying that signals in "some areas" were briefly jammed by an "unknown source," without acknowledging what was shown. Video of the incident spread via social media, apparently assisted by Starlink satellite connections that bypass Iran's severe internet restrictions. The hack follows past on-air breaches, including a 2022 incident that flashed opposition group leaders and a call for the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a CIA-assisted pirate broadcast by Pahlavi allies in 1986.
The disruption came amid a harsh clampdown on protests that began in late December over Iran's battered economy. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency now estimates at least 3,919 people have been killed, a figure the AP cannot independently verify but which Iranian officials have implicitly acknowledged as being in the thousands. As the unrest continues, President Trump has warned Tehran against killing peaceful protesters or carrying out mass executions. As the AP reports, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and accompanying warships have now entered the Strait of Malacca, on a path that could take them to the Middle East.
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