Search: shutdowns and blocking, from 2020
The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.
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Tanzania shuts down internet access on election day amid unrest
Tanzania's government restricted internet and social-media access on October 29, 2025, as citizens voted in a general election marked by protests, cutting national internet traffic by nearly 90 percent and leaving both local and foreign jo…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Samia Suluhu Hassan · Unknown
Venezuela detains, expels and restricts journalists after disputed 2024 election
In the two weeks after Venezuela's disputed July 28, 2024 presidential election, Reporters Without Borders documented 70 press-freedom violations, including nine detentions, nine expulsions of foreign correspondents and the suspension of t…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Nicolas Maduro · Sustained
India: Gaon Savera's Facebook and X accounts blocked
India blocked independent news outlet Gaon Savera's Facebook page and X account nationwide just before a workers' convention it planned to cover, without a public explanation from the government.
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Narendra Modi · Unknown
Russia: regulator blocks BBC Russian, Deutsche Welle and other outlets
Russia's media regulator Roskomnadzor blocked access nationwide to the websites of BBC Russian, Deutsche Welle, Meduza, Voice of America's Russian service and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty within days of invading Ukraine, alongside new p…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Vladimir Putin · Sustained
Russia criminalizes 'fake' reporting on the military, up to 15 years in prison
Russia's parliament passed a law criminalizing the publication of information about the military that contradicts official statements, with penalties up to 15 years in prison, prompting Novaya Gazeta to pull its Ukraine war coverage and th…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Vladimir Putin · Sustained
Belarus blocks Tut.by and arrests its editors as 'extremist'
Belarusian authorities blocked access to Tut.by, the country's most-read independent news site, searched its offices in three cities and arrested at least eleven staff, including its editor-in-chief, citing alleged media-law violations aft…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Alexander Lukashenko · Sustained
Myanmar: military cuts mobile internet after seizing power
After seizing power on February 1, 2021, Myanmar's military cut mobile data service nationwide, leaving reporters in rural townships and Rakhine State unable to send news and blocking large areas from outside communication for months.
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Min Aung Hlaing · Ongoing
Ethiopia: internet and phone service cut across Tigray
Ethiopia's government cut internet and telephone service across the Tigray region when war broke out there in November 2020, leaving the region without communication for months and forcing reporters to travel there to learn what was happen…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Abiy Ahmed · Ongoing