Internet shutdown reached Record High in 2024

Last year, the world experienced a record number of internet switching, as the governments increasingly ranked on digital power failures to suppress protests, dissent and to tighten control. A new report by Access now names Myanmar, India and Pakistan in 2024 among the top valleys and underlines the growing trend to restrict the online discourse in these countries.

The coalition #Keepiton coalition, which is based in New York, documented 296 Internet activation in 54 countries. This exceeded the total degree of the previous year in 283 in 39 countries and marked an increase of 35% compared to 2022 if 40 countries were affected. Seven nations, according to the Advocacy Group's report, were included in the list of the first offenders. When 47 remained in force in 2025, with 35 lasting over a year – a clear sign of their use as an instrument of political control.

While conflicts were still the main cause of shutting down on the Internet for the second time in a row, the trend was not limited to Warzones. India, which fell off the top in 2023, imposed no less than 84 shutdowns in 2024 – according to Access now the highest democracy.

Pakistan with 21 closing – the highest total of all time for the country – took third place, followed by Russia, which was based on 19, including seven in Ukraine. Myanmar led the list, with the military regime implementing 85 shutdowns. This comes when the country's population continues to object to an increasingly oppressive dictatorship, four years after the Junta had grasped power in a violent coup. France, a long-established European democracy, also imposed an internet closure.

Felicia Anthonio, #keepiton Campaign Manager at Access Now, commented on the trends and warned that we enter an era of democratic recession in which freedom of expression is increasingly restricted by tactics such as internet switching and censorship. She also emphasized how these tactics of right -wing extremist political movements and great technologies are used to stimulate violence against marginalized communities and silence critics. “The contempt of the prevailing powers for the voices and movements of the people is significantly shaped by an amazing 74 protest -related closure in 2024. This is the highest number of shutdowns for this deduction, which we have ever seen in a single year, and it underlines a terrifying trend to increase and to tell democracy at rising authoritarian and sweeping democracy.

While India is positioning itself as the world's greatest democracy, it has recorded 855 Internet activities since 2016. Last month, a dozen right -wing groups wrote to the European Commission and accused the government of Narendra Modi to have used various tactics to tighten control and suppress dissent. “Dill down are incompatible with the global management ambitions of India, be it with AI, digital governance or skills,” said Namrata Maheshwari, Senior Policy Counsel at Access Now. She added that no other democracy were reduced by people year after year without supervision or accountability. “We ask the authorities to lift the laws with rights and to make a switched out year for all people in India in 2025.”

According to Access Now, Pakistan has enforced 77 internet switching over the past nine years. A report by TOP10VPN.com, an independent VPN expert, showed that the country – in more than 240 million people – was affected in the worst affected internet disorders last year and, due to various digital restrictions, was an estimated 1.62 billion US dollar in financial losses. With regard to the trend, the access consultant of now came in the Asian -Pacific area, Shruti Narayan, an end to the disability of people's rights, be it through mobile internet shutdowns, VPN blocking or efforts to impose a firewall on the Internet gateways of the country.

Since 2016, Access has now been documenting 1,754 Internet switch -offs worldwide. The group described the trend as a story of people and communities that were violently separated from the world – and mutually -. “Your stories make it clear: Even switching off is one too many,” says her annual report. According to the Digital Advocacy Group Protests (74 shutdowns), exams (16 shutdown) and elections (12 shutdown), the leading triggers were.

Platform blocks

According to Access Now, 2024 set up a new data set for platform blocks with 71 instances in 35 countries. The group warned these restrictions on social media and messaging services as harmful as the complete shutdown on the Internet. “Authorities often use to control information or to aim certain groups,” the report says. In particular, X, formerly known as Twitter, was the blocked platform for the first time, a shift that coincides with the decline of content governance through the platform. “Signal and Tikkok also recorded a strong increase in blocks next to X, which marked the sharpest percentage increase compared to the previous year,” concluded the report.

Graduation of the justifications, which were often cited for the disturbance of access to essential communication platforms, said access to Felicia Anthonio from Now: The authorities have to ask themselves whether they are required and that are the least restrictive measures to address the problem. The answer is clear: no, they are not. ”

Anthonio emphasized that the monitoring of Access Now has repeatedly shown that blocking platforms harm more than benefits. “Blocking platforms increases misinformation, limits people's ability to check information and disturb life,” she said. “For some, these platforms are of crucial importance for financial stability and maintaining contact with the family. Blocking guarantees no security. It can even endanger life, especially in crises and times of instability, ”she told The Express Tribune. “Such shutdowns offer darkness for impunity, violence and human rights violations in order to thrive and further urges the countries from the democratic principles,” she concluded.