KeepItOn at 10: Inside the Global Fight Against Internet Shutdowns
The #KeepItOn coalition has won legal battles and UN recognition, but shutdowns hit record levels. Campaign manager Felicia Anthonio on a decade of advocacy.
Felicia Anthonio first encountered the reality of internet shutdowns in 2017, while interning in press freedom tracking and watching disruptions in Anglophone Cameroon cut off people on the ground. Many young technologists from the region had to leave, she told TechRadar. Now, as global campaign manager for the #KeepItOn coalition at digital rights group Access Now, she is marking a decade of the movement.
To commemorate the anniversary, the coalition launched the Sound of the Silenced initiative, publishing eight firsthand accounts from people affected by shutdowns. Among them are a teacher in Gaza who lost contact with family after a bombing and an activist in Myanmar who rode a motorbike to find mobile signal and call for help during an airstrike.
When #KeepItOn formed, there was no widely accepted definition of a shutdown. The group changed that in March 2016 at Access Now's RightsCon conference, crafting a definition describing it as an intentional disruption of internet or electronic communications, making them inaccessible or effectively unusable for a specific population or location, often to control information flow. That definition became a reference point for the UN Human Rights Council, which in July 2016 condemned shutdowns as human rights violations, and later for the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.
The coalition also established the Shutdown Tracker Optimization Project (STOP), a database now used by UN special rapporteurs, researchers, and human rights groups. Diplomatic and legal wins followed: In 2025, Bangladesh proposed a formal ban on shutdowns, and the International Criminal Court linked deliberate internet disruptions to crimes against humanity. The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice ruled shutdowns illegal in Togo, Senegal, Guinea, and Nigeria. The group has also used preventative diplomacy, such as urging public commitments to keep networks open during Zambia's recent elections.
Despite these gains, the problem is growing. Access Now recorded at least one active shutdown every day in 2025, the worst year on record. Since 2016, the coalition has documented more than 2,100 shutdowns across 100 countries. Anthonio attributes the rise to weak international enforcement and governments shifting from total blackouts to cheaper, targeted blocks of social media and messaging platforms.
Technical responses have evolved as well. During elections, the coalition cooperates with VPN providers to distribute free secure access, but VPNs do not work when networks are fully cut. Mesh messaging apps like Bridgefy aim to keep local communication alive offline, though they have their own limitations. The coalition also runs digital security workshops, teaching people to protect their devices and communicate safely under surveillance.
Anthonio says winning the fight requires a broader coalition: tech giants, telecom operators, engineers, and ordinary citizens all have a role. The Sound of the Silenced initiative is meant to make people ask themselves, 'What if this happened to me?' As she put it, the hope is that everyone defends their rights online as they do offline.