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
highlighting an alarming and dangerous trend for democracy + human rights. Read here: https://www.accessnow.org/... Alexia Skok / @alexiaskok : 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_hindu : 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/... @dailystarnews : 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/ ... @accessnow : 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/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The 2023 tally extends an already worsening record: the prior year's monitoring found 187 disruptions across 35 countries in 2022, while India had also led the 2020 count with 109 incidents. The new report shows that shutdowns remain a repeatable instrument of state control rather than isolated emergency measures.
Access Now and KeepItOn frame connectivity as essential to documenting abuses and organizing dissent. The reported cutoffs in Manipur and Punjab make that principle concrete, while Bangladesh's three incidents show the practice was not confined to one country.
First-order effects
- People and businesses in the affected areas lose access to communications, information, and digital services during shutdowns; in Manipur and Punjab, the reported impact reached millions.
- Authorities gain an immediate information-control advantage: shutdowns can impede documentation, public reporting, and coordination, according to Access Now's account of their use against dissent.
Second-order effects
- The rise from the 2022 global shutdown count increases pressure on connectivity providers and civil-society groups to document outages and clarify how network-control orders are implemented.
- Repeated shutdowns make internet access a less dependable channel for news, civic participation, and digitally delivered services in affected regions, shifting risk onto residents and organizations that depend on continuous connectivity.
Third-order effects
- If this pattern persists, network access will increasingly function as a governance chokepoint: control over physical communications infrastructure can determine who can publish, organize, or verify events during crises.
- The later report that shutdowns expanded to 54 countries in 2024 suggests the issue is broadening geographically even as the country with the highest count can change, making global accountability and transparency more consequential.
The trend: Internet shutdowns are becoming a more widely deployed form of state control over the digital infrastructure that underpins public communication and rights.