The White House has been privately pressuring commercial satellite companies to restrict imagery from the Middle East war zone, in part through the National Reconnaissance Office, which builds America's spy satellites. In at least one instance last year, the administration demanded an analyst remove satellite imagery showing American military movements related to Iran, "Hvylya" reports, citing The Economist.

Planet Labs, the world's largest commercial imaging operator, insists it made its decision to impose a two-week imagery blackout "independently," based on consultations with intelligence and combat veterans. But the timing and scope of the restrictions have fueled skepticism among researchers and industry insiders.

Some analysts suspect the administration's motive is not limited to operational security. In the early days of the war, satellite images published by Planet showed precise Iranian strikes on American radar installations, military bases and oil refineries across the Gulf. Those images directly contradicted claims by Arab states that production shutdowns at refineries had been voluntary - raising uncomfortable questions about the scale of damage inflicted by Iranian missiles.

The precedent is not new. America prohibited commercial firms from releasing high-resolution images of Israel for years, only abandoning the rule in 2020 when advances by other countries' satellites rendered it pointless. Planet itself delayed imagery from Gaza in 2023. And in May last year, the European Union degraded the quality of its own Sentinel-2 satellite images of the Red Sea while Western nations were striking the Houthis in Yemen.

But the current restrictions are far broader, and the stakes higher. With the war in its third week, the blackout has effectively shielded both American and allied military operations from independent scrutiny. Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies noted that commercial imagery had become genuinely useful for battle-damage assessment - which cuts both ways, serving researchers and potential adversaries alike.

Also read: Trump's Iran War Destroys the Old Status Quo - With No Plan for What Comes Next.