Access Now: 2023 was the worst year for internet shutdowns since monitoring began in 2016, with 283 shutdowns across 39 countries, led by India at 116
Last year, an internet shutdown in the state of Manipur, India, lasted a staggering 212 days when the state government issued 44 consecutive orders …
TIMEAstha Rajvanshi
Context & Ripple Effects
The monitoring record shows a sustained rise from 2018’s documented shutdowns to 187 disruptions across 35 countries in 2022, rather than an isolated spike. India had already been the most frequent user in the 2020 and 2022 coverage.
The scale and duration of the Manipur disruption make shutdowns consequential not only as censorship events but as failures of essential digital access. Earlier reporting estimated substantial economic losses from India’s 2019–2022 shutdown pattern, underscoring the cost borne by residents and local businesses.
First-order effects
People, businesses, and institutions in Manipur lost access to online communications and internet-dependent services for an extended period as consecutive state orders kept the network offline.
India’s 116 reported shutdowns made it the leading national contributor to the 2023 total, concentrating scrutiny on its shutdown practices and their local impact.
Second-order effects
Repeated, lengthy outages force businesses and service providers in affected areas to rely on offline workarounds, while making internet access less dependable for customers and communities.
The jump from the prior year’s 35-country shutdown record broadens the issue beyond one national policy: monitoring groups and rights advocates face a larger, more geographically dispersed set of disruptions to document.
Third-order effects
If shutdowns continue to spread across countries and last for months in some regions, internet connectivity increasingly becomes a government-controlled chokepoint rather than a dependable baseline for civic and commercial activity.
The pattern raises pressure for clearer accountability around shutdown orders, though the coverage alone does not establish whether governments will adopt limits or whether enforcement will improve.
The trend: Internet shutdowns are becoming a broader and more persistent instrument of state control, exposing the fragility of digital access where governments can interrupt networks by order.
The internet was snapped 283 times across 39 countries last year, an increase in 41% from 2022. And India holds the dubious honour of documenting the most shutdowns globally - for six years now in a row - with 116 instances. https://www.newslaundry.com/ ... [image]
India has documented the most internet shutdowns globally for six years in a row now. 116 of the 283 instances across the globe were from India, which accounts for nearly 41%. @accessnow report says 47 of them were in Manipur, and the impact was severe. https://www.thenewsminute.…
India witnessed the highest number of Internet shutdowns in the world in 2023, a record it has held for the sixth straight year, according to a report released. Shutdowns in Manipur and Punjab last year led to millions being cut off from the Internet. https://www.thehindu.com/...
Just out: @accessnow and the #KeepItOn coalition have launched our new report! By nearly every measure, 2023 is the worst year of #InternetShutdowns ever recorded — highlighting an alarming and dangerous trend for democracy + human rights. Read here: https://www.accessnow.org/...
For the 6th year in a row, #India leads in global #internetshutdowns with 116 internet shutdowns in 2023. In 2023, India imposed an internet blackout lasting more than 5,000 hrs in Manipur. According to a report by Access Now & the #KeepItOn Kaafi Real by @aroop_mishra & Zijah [i…
New: our annual #KeepItOn report is here! 2023 was a year of devastation for millions of people impacted by internet shutdowns and violence. Authorities around the world went above + beyond to brutally wield shutdowns against democracy + human rights. 🧵 https://www.accessnow.org/…
And for the SIXTH YEAR in a row, India's tops the list of countries with the highest number of internet shutdowns in the world. India ALONE accounted for 41% of internet shutdowns GLOBALLY. This means 2 things: 1. Law & order under Modi is the WORST we've had in years where [imag…
In 2023, India shutdown internet 116 times. According to Access Now, a not-for-profit that works on digital rights, since 2016 there have been 1458 internet shutdowns. Out of these, 774 of them were from India. That's more than 50% of the total shutdowns. Namrata Maheshwari, [ima…
Bangladesh saw three internet shutdowns last year, and all of those were executed to crack down on dissent, according to Access Now, an organisation advocating for digital civil rights. #Bangladesh #Internet #NewsUpdates https://www.thedailystar.net/ ...
Internet shutdowns: - enable violence - protect attackers - quash dissent - disable documentation - stop the flow of information - deny human rights And 2023 was simply horrific. Read @accessnow and the #KeepItOn coalition's new global report ⬇️ https://www.accessnow.org/...
The detailed insights in @accessnow's annual #KeepItOn report on internet shutdowns in Kashmir are deeply concerning. For the sixth year in a row, India led the world in internet shutdowns, disrupting the internet at least 116 times. Read the full report: https://www.accessnow.or…
📊 @accessnow's #KeepItOn report on internet shutdowns in 2023 indicates worsening conditions for internet shutdowns and human rights globally. We have summarised the implications of the report for India below 👇 1/9 https://www.accessnow.org/...