The Longest Silence: Internet Shutdowns During Bangladesh’s 2024 Uprising

This investigative report, published by Digitally Right and OONI (Open Observatory of Network Interference) in July 2025, documents and analyzes the internet shutdowns that occurred in Bangladesh between July 15 and August 5, 2024, during the student-led uprising that ultimately resulted in the resignation and departure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The report reconstructs a verified chronological timeline of the shutdowns across five distinct phases, detailing how authorities deployed multiple overlapping tactics — including two complete nationwide internet blackouts (July 18–23 and August 5), mobile data throttling, broadband speed reductions, selective blocking of social media platforms (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, and others), and crackdowns on VPN services — making it the longest and most geographically extensive internet shutdown in Bangladesh's history. Key findings include that the most severe disruptions directly coincided with the deadliest periods of protest violence (with an estimated 1,400 total deaths during the period), that shutdown directives were issued informally — often via WhatsApp — by multiple government bodies including BTRC, NTMC, and the Department of Telecommunications with little transparency or legal documentation, and that technical evidence from OONI, IODA, Cloudflare Radar, and Google traffic data independently corroborates the timing and scale of each disruption phase documented through media reporting and operator interviews.

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Attribution

Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI)

Publisher

Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI)

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Rights retained by the original publisher. Archived as a preservation copy for public research, with attribution and a link to the original.

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ark:/19160/st5jug7mcy5hdtpuzkmwcjwju6a

Free to use with due credit — please cite the attribution above.