Historical record of documented internet shutdowns and major restrictions worldwide. Each event is profiled with start date, scope, trigger, duration and affected population, with citations to NetBlocks measurements, Access Now Keep It On reporting and contemporary news coverage. Coverage focuses on events with both technical documentation and editorial significance.
Tanzania imposed a national internet shutdown around the October 2025 general election.…
Cameroon imposed restrictions on social media platforms during the October 2025 presidential election period.…
Azerbaijan began restricting access to several major platforms (Wikipedia, multiple news sites) in late 2024.…
Bangladeshi authorities ordered ISPs to disconnect after student-led protests over public-sector job quotas escalated. The shutdown was nationwide, including both fixed and mobile networks. NetBlocks confirmed an approxi…
Multiple rounds of mobile data restrictions and social media throttling in Iran during ongoing protest activity in 2024.…
Internet outage in Saint Vincent caused by ash damage to power and telecommunications infrastructure from La Soufrière volcanic activity.…
Senegal restricted mobile internet for the second time in 2024 during the lead-up to the rescheduled presidential election. The shutdown was again ruled unconstitutional after the fact.…
Multiple submarine cables (WACS, MainOne, ACE, SAT-3) were severed approximately simultaneously near the West African coast on 14 March 2024. The failures caused severe internet disruption across more than ten West Afric…
Pakistan blocked X (formerly Twitter) at the carrier level beginning 17 February 2024, following the announcement of the disputed general election results. The block remained in place for over a year and was partially re…
Senegal's authorities restricted mobile internet access ahead of the February 2024 presidential election, citing security concerns. The shutdown was lifted before the election was postponed. The Senegalese Supreme Court …
Brief national internet curfew during the attempted coup in Sierra Leone on 26 November 2023.…
Beginning in November 2023, Guinea began restricting access to major social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X). The restrictions persisted for over a year. Authorities cited security justifications; press-f…
Following the outbreak of conflict in the Amhara region in August 2023, internet access was cut to the affected areas. The shutdown has continued in various forms; restoration has been gradual and incomplete.…
Mali's transitional government ordered restrictions on social media platforms in August 2023 during the regional crisis that followed the Niger coup.…
Following the July 2023 coup in Niger, the junta imposed restrictions on internet access and social media. International traffic via the SAT-3 cable was selectively disrupted.…
Internet shutdown imposed during protests in Mauritania. Documented by NetBlocks and Access Now Keep It On coalition.…
Following the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in May 2023 and the resulting protests, Pakistan authorities ordered a multi-day national mobile internet shutdown.…
Sudan has experienced rolling extended internet shutdowns and degradations since the outbreak of conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in April 2023. The shutdowns are caused by a mix of…
Following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022 and subsequent nationwide protests, Iranian authorities implemented severe internet restrictions including total mobile-data shutdowns in many region…
Following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government progressively blocked or throttled Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, the BBC, Deutsche Welle and many independent news sites. The restrictions have cont…
In territory under Russian occupation since February 2022, internet access has been progressively re-routed through Russian carriers, with traffic subject to Russian filtering. Multiple submarine and terrestrial cables t…
The 15 January 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcanic eruption severed the single submarine cable connecting Tonga to Fiji. Tonga was effectively offline for approximately five weeks. Emergency satellite connections (in…
During unprecedented anti-government protests in July 2021, Cuban authorities restricted access to messaging apps, social media and VPN services. ETECSA, the state monopoly carrier, applied throttling and blocking at the…
Eswatini\'s government ordered ISPs to shut down internet access during pro-democracy protests. The shutdown lasted approximately a week.…
After the 1 February 2021 military coup that deposed Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta imposed nightly internet shutdowns, followed by extended mobile data shutoffs, restrictions on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) …
Uganda imposed an internet shutdown ahead of and during the January 2021 presidential election. Facebook had already been blocked since 14 January when the government accused the platform of removing pro-government accou…
After the outbreak of conflict in the Tigray region in November 2020, the Ethiopian government cut all internet, telephone and electricity services to the region. The blackout persisted for over two years with intermitte…
After the disputed 9 August 2020 presidential election, Belarus authorities implemented an internet shutdown that severely restricted access to social media, news sites and messaging apps. The shutdown was technically im…
Iran implemented a near-total national internet blackout for around a week beginning 16 November 2019, in response to nationwide protests over a sudden fuel price increase. The shutdown was implemented at the carrier lev…
Targeted shutdowns of mobile networks and social media in several cities following the disputed October 2019 election. Reported by NetBlocks across multiple cities.…
During the Tishreen protests in late 2019, Iraqi authorities implemented intermittent national internet shutdowns and severe throttling. The shutdowns were applied at the carrier level and were used in response to escala…
After the revocation of Article 370 granting Jammu and Kashmir special status, Indian authorities shut down all internet access in the region. Mobile data was restored 4G in selected areas in February 2021; fixed broadba…
During Hong Kong's 2019 pro-democracy protests, authorities increased monitoring and made selective takedowns of pages, but no full shutdown was implemented (unlike mainland China). The introduction of the National Secur…
Sudanese transitional military council ordered ISPs to throttle and then disconnect internet services after the Khartoum massacre of 3 June 2019, in which protestors at a sit-in were killed. The blackout, partly enforced…
Severe nationwide power outages in March 2019 caused widespread internet disconnection across Venezuela. The blackouts were not deliberate political shutdowns but caused massive degradation of network connectivity. NetBl…
Twenty-day blackout imposed by DRC authorities around the December 2018 election. Both internet and SMS services were affected. Documented by NetBlocks and the Keep It On coalition.…
Algeria has implemented nationwide internet shutdowns during the high-stakes baccalauréat exam period almost every year since 2018. The shutdowns are explicitly intended to prevent exam fraud via social media. They typic…
Cameroonian authorities cut internet to the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions during civil unrest. The shutdown affected approximately 6 million people. Two extended outage periods (Jan 2017-Apr 2017 and Oct 201…
Iraq has implemented annual exam-period shutdowns since 2017. These shutdowns affect mobile internet during specific morning hours when state exams are held. The pattern has been consistent enough that NetBlocks publishe…
During the disputed 2016 Gabonese presidential election, authorities ordered a four-day internet shutdown. Confirmed by ISP traffic data published by Cloudflare and Akamai at the time.…
During and after the July 2016 attempted military coup, Turkish authorities ordered widespread blocking of social media and many news sites. The restrictions evolved into longer-term DPI-based filtering that continues in…
On 27 January 2011, the Egyptian government instructed ISPs to withdraw the BGP route announcements for nearly all Egyptian IP space, taking the country offline almost in its entirety. The blackout lasted five days and i…
Turkmenistan operates one of the most restrictive internet regimes in the world. Internet access is filtered, throttled and monitored at the carrier level. Independent international communication is severely impeded; VPN…
China operates the most extensive and sophisticated national internet filtering system in the world. Known as the Great Firewall, it blocks most major Western platforms (Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, many news site…
North Korea has effectively no public-facing internet for its general population. The country operates a domestic intranet (Kwangmyong) but international internet access is restricted to a small set of elite users via tw…
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