Access Now documents internet shutdowns as civil society faces digital threats
Published on 9 October 2026 at 03:48 GMT
By Editorial Team SDG16
A disconnected phone can mean more than an interrupted conversation. It can separate a journalist from a source, an activist from colleagues or a patient from medical assistance. Access Now addresses this intersection of digital rights and everyday life through emergency technical support and research on deliberate communications disruptions. Its work brings two different questions into view: how people facing digital threats can continue their activities, and how restrictions affecting entire populations are documented.
The distinction has practical consequences. A compromised account concerns the security of a particular user or organisation. A network shutdown concerns the availability of communications across an area or population. Both can interrupt civil society work, but restoring control over an account and restoring access to a disconnected network are different problems. The organisation’s support service and its shutdown research address different parts of that wider picture.
Emergency support for civil society
The organisation’s Digital Security Helpline describes its service as free technical assistance for civil society groups, activists, journalists, media organisations and human rights defenders worldwide. It offers support around the clock in ten languages and states that it responds to requests within two hours. That is a stated response commitment, rather than evidence that every incident can be resolved within that period.
Its published services include risk assessment, help with existing security problems, personalised guidance and follow-up support. The helpline also describes assistance with secure communications and protecting sensitive information. Before providing support, it conducts an initial check to establish whether a request falls within its mandate. Its civil society focus therefore differs from a general technical helpdesk available to every internet user.
The service covers both preparation and emergency response. Its published remit includes people experiencing an attack and those seeking to improve their security before an incident.
What the shutdown figures establish
A separate strand of Access Now’s work records internet shutdowns with the #KeepItOn coalition. Their March 2026 report documented at least 313 shutdowns in 52 countries during 2025. Myanmar accounted for 95 recorded incidents and India for 65. The report identified conflict as the leading trigger, with 125 conflict-related shutdowns across 14 countries, representing approximately 40 per cent of the global total.
These are the report’s documented figures for a completed calendar year, not a count of events occurring in 2026. The publication also cautions that some incidents may have gone unreported and that totals can change when new information becomes available. Its figures describe the dataset at publication, rather than an exhaustive and permanently fixed inventory.
The report connects individual disruptions with broader patterns, including conflict, protests, elections and examinations. Those contexts differ in their timing and geographical reach. A national total can indicate repeated interventions, but it does not by itself describe how long people were disconnected or how many people each incident affected.
How deliberate disruption is identified
Access Now’s Shutdown Tracker Optimization Project combines technical measurements with contextual evidence, including government orders, news reports and first-hand accounts. Its methodology covers full network shutdowns, bandwidth throttling and blocks on two-way communication platforms. Blocking a news website falls outside its shutdown definition, although it recognises this as censorship.
The tracker defines an instance as a disruption lasting longer than one hour, or a series of related disruptions. It seeks to identify the cause and actor. Several technical events can therefore form one recorded instance.
Incident totals group disruptions of different lengths. A lengthy blackout and a shorter interruption can each count as one instance; ongoing shutdowns are counted in each year they occur. Duration and geographical scope are recorded separately, so totals alone do not establish relative severity.
Consequences beyond online speech
The United Nations Human Rights Office, presenting its shutdown research in June 2022, described effects on healthcare, education, employment and political participation. Its briefing included examples of hospitals unable to contact doctors during emergencies. It also explained that restrictions can involve slowed connections and blocked platforms as well as complete loss of connectivity.
The office reported that authorities often cited public safety or national security to justify acknowledged shutdowns. It urged states to refrain from imposing them and encouraged companies to disclose information about disruptions. Its findings describe effects on services and relationships beyond the political activity cited as a justification.
Access to information and public institutions
The topic connects directly with SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). Target 16.10 of the United Nations framework addresses public access to information and protection of fundamental freedoms. Its indicators cover specified attacks on journalists and human rights advocates, alongside countries’ adoption and implementation of guarantees for access to information.
Shutdown counts are not those official indicators. They describe a different aspect of the conditions in which information is sought and shared. A helpline’s availability likewise describes a support mechanism, rather than national progress towards the goal. Emergency assistance and monitoring address distinct questions: the security of people communicating and the availability of their communications channels.
Written by a human author, edited with AI assistance.
Further information:
Access Now, Digital Security Helpline. Describes eligibility, stated response times, languages and technical support.
Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition, Rising repression meets global resistance. Provides the March 2026 report’s shutdown figures for 2025 and its data caveats.
Access Now, Shutdown Tracker Optimization Project methodology. Explains definitions, verification, counting and limitations.
United Nations Office at Geneva, Internet Shutdowns Report briefing, 23 June 2022. Records the human rights office’s findings and attributed positions.
United Nations, Goal 16. Defines target 16.10 and its official indicators.
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