Not a single day of 2025 passed without at least one internet shutdown. Last year, people across the world experienced the highest number of deliberate blackouts ever recorded by the #KeepItOn coalition.
Launching today, March 31, 2026, Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition’s new report, Rising repression meets global resistance: Internet shutdowns in 2025, reveals that at least 313 shutdowns were implemented in 52 countries. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia the internet was shut down 29 times in seven countries.
Across the region, authorities increasingly deployed shutdowns as tools of control during elections, periods of political tension, and under the pretext of national security. From widespread disruptions in Russia tied to alleged drone threats and major political events, to election-related throttling in Belarus, these shutdowns disrupted access to critical information, undermined democratic processes, and put people’s safety and livelihoods at risk.
Year after year, authorities seek the power to influence elections, silence and isolate people, and attack our rights with impunity behind the digital armor of deliberate internet shutdowns. Not one of the 365 days of 2025 passed without perpetrators wielding shutdowns to lock entire populations out of communication, education, information, democratic participation, and emergency services. While people are meeting this growing repression with increasing resistance, we demand accountability. This flagrant disregard for human rights will not be our new world order.Felicia Anthonio, #KeepItOn Global Campaign Manager at Access Now
Key findings include:
- Russia leads the way: Russia saw a sharp rise in internet disruptions, with authorities imposing shutdowns across multiple regions, often justified as countermeasures against drone attacks, despite limited evidence of their necessity;
- Disrupting democracy: Belarus imposed platform blocks and throttling around its January 2025 presidential election, continuing a pattern of election-related shutdowns and censorship.
- People are fighting back: civil society across the region continues to push back, including through strategic litigation efforts in Kazakhstan challenging the legality and proportionality of shutdowns; and via parallel proceedings, where civil society groups have pursued litigation against telecommunications operators for implementing the shutdown orders, arguing that companies failed to uphold their responsibility to respect human rights under international standards.
Internet shutdowns are no longer isolated incidents in Eastern Europe and Central Asia — they are flooding Russia at an unprecedented scale, becoming normalized as a tool of control, while disrupting the lives of millions from Kyrgyzstan to Ukraine. What we are seeing is incredibly alarming: this model of disruption is not outlying or contained. It is spreading across the entire region, risking a ripple effect where shutdowns become the default response to political and security challenges everywhere.Anastasiya Zhyrmont, Policy Manager, Eastern Europe & Central Asia at Access Now
In 2025, shutdowns were implemented in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region in: Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia* (two imposed by Ukraine), Turkmenistan, and Ukraine (three imposed by Russia).
Read the full report, global snapshot, and shutdowns dashboard.
*Emerging information from trusted #KeepItOn partners indicate that hundreds to thousands of internet disruptions have reportedly occurred across virtually every region of the country since May 2025. Access Now is working with partners to verify and document these events, and we will continue to update the STOP dataset accordingly.