Internet shutdowns are widely viewed as an attack on human rights. But that wasn’t always the case. A decade ago, civil society groups joined forces to push back against deliberate network disruptions, and today, the resistance to shutdowns is stronger than ever. As Access Now and the #KeepItOn community mark the 10th anniversary of the #KeepItOn campaign in 2026, we’re reflecting on the path travelled so far — and the journey still to come as we continue to fight to #KeepItOn around the world.
Read on for a look at how the #KeepItOn campaign started, how it has evolved, and how you can join us to support and celebrate the work of the #KeepItOn coalition.
How it started
Ten years ago, there were no strong global norms condemning internet shutdowns. The groups fighting shutdowns were only loosely connected, and the lack of coordination made it difficult to get a global picture of the many harms people were experiencing — even as governments disconnected entire communities, disrupted business and daily life, undermined election integrity, exacerbated humanitarian crises, and attempted to hide grave human rights abuses and violations.
That’s why Access Now and our partners convened a session to develop a shared definition for an internet shutdown at RightsCon Silicon Valley in 2016 — a first step toward a common method for tracking shutdowns all around the world. As an outcome of that meeting, Access Now and 70 organizations later publicly committed to fighting shutdowns, formally launching the #KeepItOn campaign. Our goal: to unite ongoing efforts to resist shutdowns around the world, to increase awareness of the harms they cause, and finally, to end shutdowns altogether.
Within a year of the launch, we saw exciting progress: in July 2016, the UN Human Rights Council heeded our call to denounce internet shutdowns as a human rights violation, adopting the first of many UN resolutions that have condemned these disruptions and confirmed that human rights apply online as they do offline. That same year, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) passed a landmark resolution urging African Union member states to guarantee internet access and ensure accountability for shutdowns.
Access Now also pushed ahead with the tracking system we envisioned, which we hoped would serve as a powerful accountability tool. In 2017, we publicly launched the Shutdown Tracker Optimization Project (STOP), sharing the first version of the database that today enables us to analyze and report on the shutdown data collected from across the entire #KeepItOn coalition. Every year, as we have reported on the status of shutdowns globally, we have also marked steady progress in the movement to stop disruptions for good.
How it’s going
We wish we could report that internet shutdowns have become a thing of the past. But despite the harms they cause and lives and livelihoods they disrupt, the latest #KeepItOn data confirm that governments continue to impose shutdowns to silence dissent, manipulate elections, and conceal human rights abuses. They also increasingly use shutdowns as weapons of war, highlighting the urgent need for a digital ceasefire process. In 2025, we saw a record 313 shutdowns in 52 countries — an increase of more than 300% from the 78 shutdowns we documented in 2016.
This means that the #KeepItOn coalition and campaign are more vital and necessary than ever for protecting people’s fundamental rights, safety, and well-being.
The good news is that a movement that began with 70 organizations has now grown to over 370 local, regional, national, and international organizations from 106 countries. And over the past decade, our advocacy has pushed internet shutdowns onto the agendas of international bodies and multistakeholder groups, building and strengthening global norms against network disruptions. That includes UN resolutions, reports from UN special rapporteurs, the UN Global Digital Compact, the World Summit on the Information Society +20 Outcomes Document, and statements by the Global Network Initiative (GNI) and Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) condemning shutdowns.
We’ve also successfully pushed back against shutdowns in court. Lawsuits by #KeepItOn coalition partners have led regional and national courts to declare shutdowns unlawful, and have forced governments and telcos to end, limit, or explain connectivity restrictions.
Finally, our coalition has made significant progress in equipping people and communities with the knowledge and tools necessary to push back against shutdowns. Access Now has improved our STOP database by creating a public dashboard that gives journalists, researchers, and policymakers access to the comprehensive, verified data they need to understand the status of shutdowns and take action. Our Digital Security Helpline helps educate people about how to stay connected when communications services are blocked. We work with coalition partners to monitor and push back against internet shutdowns that take place during national moments of importance, such as elections and exams, and call out governments that put people in danger during crisis and war, or attempt to keep them cut off indefinitely. Our Shutdown Stories project amplifies the voices of those courageous people whose well-being, livelihoods, and physical safety are jeopardized when the internet goes dark.
what comes next
We dream of a world where everyone has access to free, secure internet; where authorities reject the use of internet shutdowns as a tool of control, and respect people’s rights to access information and express themselves freely online. But making that vision a reality is up to all of us, from coalition members and partners, to supporters like you.
Throughout 2026 and beyond, we will mark the #KeepItOn coalition’s 10 year anniversary with activities to recognize the resilience of impacted communities, strengthen our partnerships, and renew our collective commitment to ending internet shutdowns in every corner of the world. Here’s a preview of what’s to come:
- Stay tuned next week for our new online interactive exhibit, Sound of the silenced, that shares stories from people who have experienced shutdowns over the past decade, launching at 10:00 AM CET on August 18.
- Connect with us at RightsCon Continues, a 24-hour summit on September 22-23. We’ll host a fireside chat on movement building with our #KeepItOn partners.
- Join us at FIFAfrica26 on September 28 – October 1 to connect, reflect, and share lessons as members and partners of the #KeepItOn campaign.
- Meet up with us at MozFest on October 28-30 to see the Sound of the silenced exhibit in person and record yourself sharing your experience as a #KeepItOn coalition member or partner.
- And there’s more to come! We’ll share the details about other opportunities for you to engage with us over the next several months.
As always, if your organization is interested in being part of the #KeepItOn coalition, we warmly encourage you to learn more and apply to join the coalition. Together, we can make a difference.