Governments around the world are increasingly cutting internet access to suppress protests and control unrest. Photo / Getty Images
Governments around the world are increasingly cutting internet access to suppress protests and control unrest. Photo / Getty Images
Iran’s move to cut internet access during ongoing mass protests, and Uganda’s actions before controversial elections, are the latest examples of how some governments use digital blackouts to muzzle dissent.
There were a record 296 deliberate internet shutdowns in 54 countries in 2024, according to the latest datafrom digital rights group Access Now – the highest number of shutdowns since they began monitoring in 2016.
Here are some other times that governments have used the internet to crack down on protests, opponents, or to cover up conflicts.
2025: Afghanistan
In September 2025, Taliban authorities plunged Afghanistan into a 48-hour internet blackout on the orders of reclusive Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who said he wanted to prevent “vice” and “moral corruption”.
After restoring the internet, authorities restricted access to social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.
It was the first time since the Taliban movement won their insurgency in 2021 and imposed a strict version of Islamic law that communications had been cut in the country.
2023: Sudan
The Army and rival paramilitaries in Sudan have regularly used telecommunications blackouts as a weapon of war in the conflict which started in April 2023.
A nationwide blackout in 2024 affected nearly 30 million Sudanese for more than a month, according to aid and human rights groups.
In the western region of Darfur, which has seen some of the worst violence, the internet remains largely cut off even today.
2020: Tigray war
In November 2020, internet and telephone networks were shut down in Tigray in northern Ethiopia, where government forces fought separatists between 2020 and 2022.
The exact cause of the blackout was not established.
The internet connections were gradually re-established from late 2022, but some disruptions remain.
2019: Myanmar
Myanmar imposed a 19-month total internet blackout between June 2019 and February 2021 in its conflict-ridden Rakhine and Chin states.
The internet was re-established on February 3, 2021, the day after a military coup which overthrew the government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar’s new military rulers use the same digital weapons, imposing internet blackouts in the country.
Activist group the Myanmar Internet Project (MIP) says there have been nearly 400 regional internet shutdowns since the junta takeover in what it called a “digital coup”.
Protesters march along a street while shouting slogans and holding up three-finger salutes before a countrywide internet blackout on February 06, 2021, in Yangon, Myanmar. Photo / Getty Images
2019: Kashmir
In 2019, India imposed a total internet shutdown in the Kashmir region to avoid an uprising at a time New Delhi was rolling back the disputed territory’s constitutional autonomy.
The months-long shutdown throttled communication there as India bolstered its armed forces in the region in an effort to contain protests.
