Content note: the following post contains references to violence and torture.
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 the Asia Pacific region, the internet was shut down 195 times in 11 countries.
Across the Asia Pacific region, 195 shutdowns were implemented in 11 countries. For the second year in a row, millions of people in Myanmar lived through the highest number of recorded shutdowns — at least 95. Since the 2021 coup, the military has turned shutdowns into an instrument of war, imposed across the country, and often in the middle of active conflict. These disruptions have silenced communities and cost lives. In March 2025, ongoing shutdowns severely undermined rescue and emergency response efforts following a devastating earthquake.
At the same time, the region’s democracies continue to rely on shutdowns as a default response to unrest. India imposed 65 shutdowns in 2025, and Pakistan recorded 20, reflecting a steady normalization of cutting connectivity during protests, religious events, and politically sensitive moments, often with little transparency or accountability.
Across Asia, governments are pulling the plug on connectivity even as digitisation efforts and AI ambitions accelerate. It is disingenuous to champion innovation on one hand, and deny millions of people access to the digital world on the other. This contradiction is eroding trust, rights, and the very foundations of an inclusive digital future. Shutdowns are being resorted to as a first response to dissent and crisis, hampering scrutiny when it is needed most and intensifying harm for communities already at risk.Namrata Maheshwari, Senior Policy Counsel at Access Now
Key findings include:
- A region driving global numbers: Asia Pacific accounted for 195 shutdowns across 11 countries, representing a majority of global incidents;
- Myanmar as ground zero: at least 95 shutdowns, with the military junta responsible for the majority, alongside a growing number of state and non-state actors imposing disruptions in a fragmented conflict environment. When a deadly earthquake struck, these blackouts didn’t just disrupt communication, they obstructed emergency response and put lives at even greater risk;
- Expanding playbook, multiple perpetrators: beyond national governments, actors including Thai and Chinese authorities carried out cross-border shutdowns affecting connectivity in Myanmar and Cambodia, highlighting how shutdowns are increasingly spilling across borders;
- Repression by design: in Afghanistan, authorities imposed shutdowns that further sealed off a population already under near-total control, stripping away one of the last remaining lifelines for women and girls to access information and stay connected;
- Blocking, then bloodshed: in Nepal, authorities blocked at least 26 social media platforms after forcing new registration rules, igniting mass protests that were met with lethal force. More than 75 people were killed and over 2,000 injured. While the government reversed the ban within days under pressure, the damage was already done. The shutdown exacerbated a crisis that spiraled into violence and political collapse;
- Disconnecting democracy: despite the decrease in shutdown numbers from previous years, India continues to choose control over people’s voices, lacking the recognition that shutdowns are fundamentally incompatible with democracy;
- Targeting alternative connectivity: junta and armed actors in Myanmar increasingly moved to restrict satellite-based internet access, including various efforts to shut down Starlink services through arrests, confiscation of equipment, and closure of access points; and
- Signs of resistance and reform: in Bangladesh, lived experiences and sustained advocacy led to proposed legislation that would prohibit internet shutdowns altogether, signaling that pushback against shutdown practices is gaining traction.
In Myanmar, for years the junta has deliberately deployed internet shutdowns alongside advanced firewall technologies to tighten control and restrict any remaining connectivity. To ensure that people’s right to internet access is protected under any circumstances, it is time for serious investment and innovation towards ensuring unhindered access to connectivity and to dismantle the playbook of the authoritarian regime once and for all.Wai Phyo Myint, Asia Pacific Policy Analyst at Access Now
In 2025, shutdowns were implemented in the Asia Pacific region in: Afghanistan (four), Cambodia (two, including one imposed by Thai authorities), China (two), India (65), Indonesia (two), Malaysia (one), Myanmar (95, including 76 imposed by the military junta, five by unknown perpetrators, three by the Arakan Army, three by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, two by the People’s Administrative Body, two by Thai authorities, one by Chinese authorities, one by the National Unity Government, one by the Myaing People’s Defense Force, and one by the District Joint Administrative Committee in Mawchi), Nepal (two), Pakistan (20), Papua New Guinea (one), and Vietnam (one)
Read the full report, global snapshot, and shutdowns dashboard.