Internet Shutdowns Hit Record High in 2025
Shutdowns · 26.09.2026

313 internet shutdowns across 52 countries in 2025 — a record since 2016, when the #KeepItOn coalition began tracking the numbers. Myanmar leads with 95 shutdowns, India — 65, Pakistan — 20, Russia — 19, Iran — 11. A hundred countries have already tested this on their own citizens. 70 shutdowns coincided with the most severe human rights violations, 125 were tied to conflicts. Cutting the internet is the simplest way to hide the truth while also stripping people of healthcare, education, banking, and contact with loved ones — all with the push of a button.

In the US, according to one analysis, the president doesn't have a single "kill switch" — the network is too distributed. But the authors note: that's not even necessary. Instead of a full nationwide shutdown, targeted, low-visibility restrictions are enough: dampening mobile data near federal buildings, throttling traffic so a livestream just won't load, choking specific apps and VPNs. Technically, it's not a shutdown — it's more like "the network is just having a bad day." Convenient: there's nothing to point to, and there's no way to document a protest crackdown anymore.

A separate genre altogether is surveillance while the internet formally keeps working. A tower dump hands over a list of every phone connected to a cell tower, including random passersby and journalists. Cell-site simulators like Stingray impersonate a cell tower to capture a device's identifier — ICE, as documented in an ACLU lawsuit, has already upgraded from Stingray II to a model with the telling name Crossbow.

Meanwhile, the UN explicitly calls internet shutdowns a tool of control with consequences across a whole spectrum of human rights. The proposed solution is surprisingly down-to-earth: instead of searching for one magic backup channel, build a whole stack — Briar and Meshtastic for local communication without towers, offline archives, good old paper phone trees, and physical meeting points. Technology doesn't work without batteries, but paper always works.

Source: https://resistancemediainfo.substack.com/p/trumps-internet-kill-switch