Don_Dickle@lemmy.world to Explain Like I'm Five@lemmy.worldEnglish · 8 days agoHow can leaders of a country like Russia or Iran or whomever shut down the internet? Is there not some hacker or cracker way to open it back up?message-squaremessage-square13linkfedilinkarrow-up11
arrow-up11message-squareHow can leaders of a country like Russia or Iran or whomever shut down the internet? Is there not some hacker or cracker way to open it back up?Don_Dickle@lemmy.world to Explain Like I'm Five@lemmy.worldEnglish · 8 days agomessage-square13linkfedilink
minus-squareschnurrito@discuss.tchncs.delinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up0·7 days agoThe Internet depends on physical infrastructure like towers and cables, which can be shut off. Satellite internet is the main way to access the Internet that cannot so easily be shut off because the infrastructure for that is in space, not the country’s borders. So this is why this news story exists for example: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2026/01/12/kill-switch-iran-shuts-down-starlink-internet-for-first-time/
The Internet depends on physical infrastructure like towers and cables, which can be shut off.
Satellite internet is the main way to access the Internet that cannot so easily be shut off because the infrastructure for that is in space, not the country’s borders. So this is why this news story exists for example: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2026/01/12/kill-switch-iran-shuts-down-starlink-internet-for-first-time/