Governments around the world have appeared to ease off from using internet shutdowns to silence protesters and control access to information, according to new data from internet infrastructure company Cloudflare.
Cloudflare and other internet monitoring organizations like NetBlocks have tracked dozens of internet shutdowns or specific website bans globally for years, with multiple throughout 2024 related to contentious elections or military conflict. Some have persisted since they began, including years-long internet throttling in dictatorships like Myanmar.
But so far in 2025, there have been no new shutdowns, according to Cloudflare’s Q1 2025 Internet disruption summary. Cloudflare said they have seen this happen in only two other quarters over the last three years.
“In the past, Cloudflare has seen governments primarily implementing internet shutdowns around national exams, and around (disputed) elections and/or protests, so fewer of these events in the first quarter may have been a factor,” a spokesperson told Recorded Future News, referencing a tactic where governments shut down the internet during national exams to stop students from cheating.
The company said in a blog post that while the lack of new government internet shutdowns is an encouraging trend, they “expect that it will be short-lived if countries like Iraq and Syria once again take such measures to prevent cheating on nationwide exams.”
“As always, we encourage governments to recognize the collateral damage of such actions, and suggest that they explore alternative solutions to this problem,” the company said.
NetBlocks director Alp Toker confirmed that his organization has also seen a lull in government-backed internet shutdowns.
He attributed the slowdown to two factors: the shuttering of USAID and the compliance of tech platforms in internet censorship.
“The shuttering of USAID and similar soft-influence programmes previously run by the U.S. government has impacted or ended the work of countless non-government organizations around the world, for better or for worse,” he explained.
Toker said many of the non-governmental organizations sponsored by USAID primarily campaigned via social media platforms and that work was often perceived as international interference by governments in those countries.
“Their closure has dented the market for paid activism, and their absence means authoritarian-leaning regimes now have less of a need to shut down the internet or social media platforms during elections or protests,” he noted.
The other major factor, according to Toker, is the way social media platforms have largely ceded their authority to governments. Toker said social media platforms are now more likely to comply with government orders to restrict certain accounts or posts.
He cited recent examples of X, formerly known as Twitter, complying with orders from the Turkish government to limit accounts calling for boycotts or others that criticize the leadership of the country. Legal complaints fighting to get the accounts restored could take years, he added.
“With the increased compliance, there is less objectionable content on the platforms, hence those governments are less likely to shut down the entire platform or the whole internet in a bid to silence those voices,” Toker explained.
The lack of government-led internet shutdowns does not mean there were none at all, both Cloudflare and NetBlocks noted.
On Wednesday, NetBlocks tracked an internet shutdown in New Jersey caused by a wildfire.
Cloudflare tracked several outages in Q1 2025 connected to submarine and terrestrial cable damage, cyberattacks, power outages and multiple weather issues.
Cloudflare’s network covers more than 330 cities in over 125 countries and they work with about 13,000 network providers in order to provide a broad range of services to millions of customers.
Massive fires in Los Angeles and Haiti caused internet disruptions while severe storms caused outages in Ireland and Réunion. Several internet shutdowns in Asia were also caused by damage to submarine and terrestrial cables.
The earthquake in Myanmar made an already stifled internet access situation worse, damaging infrastructure and making it even more difficult for victims to contact each other during the recovery effort.
Recorded Future
Intelligence Cloud.
No previous article
No new articles
Jonathan Greig
is a Breaking News Reporter at Recorded Future News. Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since 2014. Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia. He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.
