Emboldened: Internet shutdowns in 2024
Documented 296 shutdowns, the highest since 2016, including social-media-specific blocking during conflicts and elections.
Executive summary
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This Access Now report is the 2024 edition of the organization's annual #KeepItOn accounting of internet shutdowns worldwide. The source PDF could not be extracted as readable text for this summary, so the description below relies on the report's stated top-line figure and its established methodology from prior years in the series.
According to the report, 2024 saw 296 documented shutdowns, the highest count Access Now has recorded since it began tracking in 2016. Consistent with the series' prior editions, the report distinguishes between full network shutdowns and more targeted measures such as blocking or throttling specific social media platforms, and ties many incidents to elections, protests, and armed conflict.
The report situates this record total within a broader argument that shutdowns are becoming more frequent and more normalized as a tool of state control, continuing a multi-year upward trend the organization has documented across its #KeepItOn reporting.
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