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New Delhi: A 2026 report brought out by the #KeepItOn campaign, titled  “Rising repression meets global resistance: Internet shutdowns in 2025,” and authored by Zach Rosson and Felicia Anthonio, chronicles the dismaying rise in incidents of internet crackdowns worldwide – conflict and protests acting as dominant triggers – revealing a pattern of egregious misuse of power by perpetrators to silence dissent, control public narrative, inflict collective punishment, and protract human suffering by isolating populations and disrupting lives.

The #KeepItOn campaign was launched by Access Now in 2016 to mobilise people, communities, and civil society actors globally to fight against internet shutdowns. Here are ten key points to note about internet shutdowns and heightening repression in 2025:

1. A year of persisting disconnection

In 2025, internet blackouts were not individual events but consistent occurrences. Every single day of the year saw at least one internet shutdown in some part of the world. Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition recorded 313 shutdowns across 52 countries, topping the already abysmal numbers of 2024 (304) and 2023 (289). 75 shutdowns in 33 countries continued from 2025 into 2026, raising concerns about perpetrators’ persevering attempts at keeping entire populations in the dark and permanently blocking communications platforms. Additionally, the number of countries where shutdowns occurred has exponentially escalated over the last decade, growing from 28 in 2016 to 52 in 2025, with an addition of seven first-time offenders in the previous year (Albania, Angola, Cambodia, Lithuania, Panama, Papua New Guinea, and the United States of America).

#KeepItOn shutdown data dashboard overview, Photo: Access Now.

2. Asia-Pacific driving more than half of the global numbers

The Asia-Pacific region accounted for 195 shutdowns across 11 countries, accounting for a majority of the total shutdowns imposed in 2025. As per the report, people in Myanmar lived through the highest number of deliberate shutdowns – no less than 95 – overtaking India for the second consecutive year. Ever since the 2021 coup, military in Myanmar has weaponsised shutdowns to stifle public opinion, supress dissent, and isolate people in the middle of active conflict, leading to loss of lives and severe harm to civilians.

The junta was responsible for a large fraction of shutdowns in last year (76), while the remaining 19 were imposed by eight external perpetrators. The report claims that the shutdowns acutely undermined rescue and emergency efforts following a devastating earthquake in March 2025. Testimonies documenting the draconian shutdowns under Myanmar’s military regime paint a dire picture of diminishing freedom of expression and access to information, reinforced by growing arrests, VPN restrictions, and invasive digital surveillance.

Authoritarian censorship practices in Pakistan contributed to at least 20 internet crackdowns in 2025 (a slight decrease from the 22 incidents reported in 2024). According to the report, the Pakistani government has implemented internet blackouts every year since 2016, with substantial spikes in 2024 and 2025. Most of these shutdowns were enforced in response to protests, or during politically or socially sensitive periods.

The Taliban enacted four internet blackouts in Afghanistan during 2025, divulging disturbing repression tactics employed against an already sequestered and deeply monitored society. These shutdowns effectively cut off regional and national level internet access, phone services, and communications platforms for over 43 million people under the pretense of “curbing immorality.” The report states that blackouts cement the de facto regime’s efforts at implementing control via censorship, following previous attempts to ban smartphones. Restrictions on internet  usage are significant as they further subjugate women and girls who are barred from accessing education and employment and for whom the internet remains as the only source for critical information.

3. India’s normalisation of shutdowns:

India ranked second globally with 65 instances of imposed crackdowns in 2025 – astonishingly its lowest since 2017. According to the report, the shutdowns impacted 12 states and territories. They were deployed during religious holidays, protests, conflicts, communal violence, and supplemented other restrictions of digital rights, inclusive of circumventing tools like VPNs. Around 800 people were arrested though phone searches for banned applications after Indian officials invoked Section 163 of the Criminal Procedure Code in Kashmir, banning unathorised VPN use. Such frequent and high number of internet blackouts are distressing for a democracy, eroding civilian rights and liberities, and normalising ruthless and diabolical moves to repress dissenting voices and disempower minorities.

Total shutdowns per year in India, Photo: Access Now.

4. Shutdowns hiding human rights abuses

One of the central findings of the report is the co-occurrence of internet shutdowns and immense human rights abuses and violence. The report tracks the intensification of violence against civilians following a breakdown of internet connectivity, blackouts often being utilised to hide state-sponsored atrocities and violation of civil liberties. There were 70 shutdowns linked to severe human rights abuses in 2025. Vulnerable populations were cut off from the world at pertinent instances – the Sudanese people were disconnected from the outside world during one of the worst humanitarian aid crises as were the people of Gaza during Israel’s prolonged and unfolding genocide. The Iranian government responded to mass protests in January 2026 by imposing a comprehensive and pervasive national blackout, hiding grave human rights abuses, including the killing of 7,002 people, with 11,730 cases still being investigated.

Similarly, the Ugandan government used internet limitations to curb dissent during critical elections, blatantly ignoring human rights and democratic norms. Under the current US-Israeli military campaign in Iran millions of people have been cut off from the world, violating international law and exacerbating anxieties in a hitherto frightening situation. A testimony detailing a hidden shutdown in the Tamu township of Myanmar recounts how people relied on waning mobile phone connections to alert them of incoming airstrikes. The junta’s implementation of internet blackouts severed news and communications channels, leaving the locals ignorant about imminent strikes. Thus, internet shutdowns are often wielded to shroud, and even augment, human rights violations.

5. Conflict as the biggest trigger

For the third year in a row, the research finds that conflict was the leading trigger in prompting internet crackdowns. There were 125 conflict-related shutdowns observed across 14 countries, constituting 40% of the global total. 74% of conflict-related internet shutdowns in 2025 impacted countries in the Asia-Pacific region, with 13% affecting the Middle East and North Africa region. “This alarming multi-year trend highlights a landscape of conflict where perpetrators are acting with impunity while regularly cutting off internet access to conceal war crimes and atrocities, and  terrorise populations,” the report states. Internet blackouts are being utilised to disrupt civilian connectivity at times of violent hostility not only to conceal human rights abuses as mentioned above but also to weaken opposing voices. Expanding to alternative forms of connectivity, and attacking something as fundamental as communication during duress, perpetrators have adopted internet shutdowns as an integral form of warfare.

Internet shutdown triggers 2025, Photo: #KeepItOpen, Access Now.

6. Shutdowns as quick-fixes for political instability

The second-highest driver for blackouts in 2025 was ‘protests and political instability.’ The report reflects that 64 protest-related shutdowns occurred across 19 countries, with only 33% of the cases publicly acknowledging the blackouts. These prohibitive steps were taken to either suppress dissent, crack down on opposition, consolidate power, or prevent the documentation of abject human rights violations. When states acknowledge shutdowns, they stick to superficial reasons such as protection of national security and public safety, despite disproportionally implementing shutdowns in response to anti-government protests and opposition rallies. The Asia-Pacific once again dominated this parameter with 61% of protest-related shutdowns occurring in the region. There was an alarmingly-high number of election-related shutdowns (12) in eight countries, incumbent actors weaponising shutdowns to legitimise power or conceal frauds.

Shutdowns during elections by country, Photo: #KeepItOpen, Access Now.

7. Growing number of cross-border perpetrators:

Some of the most damaging shutdowns of the year were imposed from outside of the affected countries. The report records 18 shutdowns implemented by seven cross-border actors in seven countries (or occupied territories) namely Cambodia, Central African Republic, Myanmar, Palestine, Russia, Ukraine, and Yemen. These incidents are consequential as they aggravate already precarious circumstances, amplifying suffering for those impacted by conflict, occupation, or internal upheaval, through a variety of methods like airstrikes on fiber optic cables, electricity blackouts, cyberattacks, tampering with submarines cables, et cetera.

Cross-border shutdowns, Photo: #KeepItOpen, Access Now.

8. Targeting alternative connectivity, attacks on LEO satellite internet

2025 noticed an expansion into a wide variety of alternative connectivity shutdowns in multiple parts of the world. As indicated by the report, perpetrators obstructed LEO satellite internet 14 times across seven countries. LEO satellites are growingly used in areas with low connectivity and continued shutdown of terrestrial internet. Targeted attacks on these sources indicates a deep entrenched strategy to handicap civilian agency and connectivity, oppressing dissent and pluralism. Authorities apply a myriad of tactics to prevent people from accessing the internet via satellite, ranging from abruptly high permit fees, criminalising purchase and sale of tools like Starlink, selective availability of services, to confiscation of equipment. The report adds that in light of the LEO satellite’s growing importance in connecting millions, especially those living in conflict zones, it is critical to ensure that safe and secure communications systems are developed and propagated to bolster alternative connectivity.

9. Increasing communication platforms blocks

Lastly, perpetrators continued with platform communications blocks in 2025, with a record high of 94 blocks in 40 countries. States attacked popular social media and messaging platforms including meta-owned platforms Facebook (31), Instagram (20), and WhatsApp (27), TikTok (16), and Telegram (23). Dating applications like Grindr were also banned 13 times in 13 countries, hinting at the extent to which authorities went to make sure that communities were separated from vital means of communication during times of crisis.

Number of platform blocks in 2025, Photo: #KeepItOpen, Access Now.

10. Resistance against repression

The report also makes note of growing global resistance and solidarity against acts of repression. Apart from the #KeepItOpen coalition members’ endeavours to compel governments to end, reverse, or explain internet shutdowns, several other countries and organisations are supporting strategic litigation against internet crackdowns and restrictions on communication services. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice ruled declaring shutdowns in Senegal as illegal in 2025.

Civil society groups in Tanzania, Kenya, and Kazakhstan have also repeatedly challenged shutdowns before national courts. Following sustained demands for accountability, the Bangladeshi authorities outlawed internet shutdowns completely, claiming that “no telecommunication connection, related service, or internet access shall be shut down, disrupted, or restricted under any circumstance.” Furthermore, the International Criminal Court acknowledged the link between internet shutdowns and crimes against humanity in December 2025, accepting that blackouts enable perpetrators to evade responsibility, hide violations, and deprive people of their rights.

Over the years, internet shutdowns have become political tools with widespread human consequences and costs, shaping conflicts, influencing elections, suppressing opposing voices, and hiding violent atrocities. And yet, people continue to resist, providing hope for a better future unencumbered by authoritarian and systematic attempts at restricting freedoms.

Ritvi Jain is an editorial intern at The Wire.

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