What Next | Daily News and Analysis Why Dictators Take Out the Internet
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Feb 1, 2026 Steve Feldstein, political scientist and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment focused on digital repression. He unpacks why regimes cut internet access, the different forms of shutdowns, and how they are used beyond protests. The conversation covers wartime blackouts, tools like mesh apps and Starlink, and how repression shows up in democracies.
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Egypt's 2011 Blackout Backfired
- In 2011 Egypt turned off the internet and that blackout backfired by driving millions into the streets.
- The shutdown removed information and instead accelerated mass mobilization that led to the government's fall.
Blackouts Create A Cover For Repression
- Shutdowns do more than stop chats; they create a cover of darkness for state violence.
- Iran paired blackout with mass coercion to limit outside visibility of what security forces were doing.
There Are Many Flavors Of Disruption
- Internet disruption takes multiple forms: full blackouts, regional cuts, platform blocking, and throttling.
- Each form has different costs, durations, and tactical effects for regimes and citizens.