The first quarter of 2025 saw zero government-directed Internet shutdowns around the world, according to Cloudflare's Q1 2025 Internet Disturbance Summary.

The report notes that this follows just one such incident in Q4 2024, but expects this to be "short-lived," suggesting that countries including Iraq and Syria, which have previously imposed Internet shutdowns, could "once again take such measures to prevent cheating on nationwide exams."

Cloudflare further noted that the lack of shutdowns is an "unusual occurrence."

"In the three-year history of this blog post series, [it] has only occurred previously in Q4 2023 and Q1 2022," the report adds.

Government-directed Internet shutdowns are imposed in a variety of circumstances.

Cloudflare released a report in July 2024 detailing shutdowns by authorities in Syria, Iraq, and Algeria, ostensibly to prevent cheating during exam periods. The shutdowns were intermittent throughout the exam period in May and June. In its latest report, Cloudflare urged governments to "recognize the collateral damage of such actions, and suggest that they explore alternative solutions to this problem."

While a relatively benign case, such shutdowns are often imposed during times of political unrest. Doing so prevents citizens from sharing on social media, media outlets reporting on events, and limits access to information.

July 2024 saw Bangladesh impose a communication blackout in light of protests across 26 districts nationwide.

Earlier that year, multiple regions across Pakistan were affected by an Internet blackout as the country held a general election.

Kazakhstan has also been known to block Internet access, with the most recent blackout taking place in January 2022.

The Mongolian parliament passed a law in February 2023 to give the Minister of Internal Affairs the right to shut down the Internet on demand.

Beyond government-directed Internet shutdowns, the Cloudflare report highlighted that the quarter has seen a number of disruptions caused by cable damage and power outages.

Countries impacted by subsea and terrestrial cable issues this quarter include Pakistan, Syria, and Nepal.

Power outages hit countries including Angola, Chile, Honduras, Cuba, Panama, and Sri Lanka. The latter power outage was actually caused by a monkey coming into contact with a grid transformer in February, resulting in a multi-hour disruption to Internet traffic.