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:  - <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/01/22/nx-s1-5684033/iran-2026-protests"target="_blank" >Iran Protests Explained</a> - <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/01/15/nx-s1-5678567/iran-internet-blackout-starlink"target="_blank" >There's an internet blackout in Iran. How are videos and images getting out?</a> - <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/01/22/nx-s1-5680784/iran-blocked-the-internet-amid-deadly-protests-some-voices-are-still-getting-through"target="_blank" >Iran blocked the internet amid deadly protests. Some voices are still getting through</a> Interested in more science behind the headlines? Email us your question at <a href="mailto:shortwave@npr.org"target="_blank" >shortwave@npr.org</a> – we may tackle it in a future episode! Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at <a href="http://plus.npr.org/shortwave"target="_blank" >plus.npr.org/shortwave</a>. This episode was produced by Berly McCoy, edited by Rebecca Ramirez and fact checked by Tyler Jones. Robert Rodriguez was the audio engineer. Learn more about sponsor message choices: <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a> <a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

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