How can a government shut the internet?

There’s an ongoing, near-total blackout of the internet in Iran. The shutdown is part of a response by the government to ongoing protests against rising inflation and the value of the nation’s currency plummeting. Since protests began more than two weeks ago, only an estimated 3% of Iranians have stayed online through the satellite internet system Starlink. Doing so is a crime. So, today on the show: Iran offline. We get into how the internet works, how a government can shut it down and how scientists are monitoring the nation’s connectivity from afar.

Check out more of NPR's coverage of Iran: 

- Iran Protests Explained

- There's an internet blackout in Iran. How are videos and images getting out?

- Iran blocked the internet amid deadly protests. Some voices are still getting through

Interested in more science behind the headlines? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may tackle it in a future episode!

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This episode was produced by Berly McCoy, edited by Rebecca Ramirez and fact checked by Tyler Jones. Robert Rodriguez was the audio engineer.

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