Reddit was the first major site to announce an "Internet blackout" for January 18, 2012, and several other sites shortly followed, coordinating actions for that day.

In view of the Internet blackout, a group of "88-generation activists" urged the United Nations, along with the United States and United Kingdom embassies in Yangon, to open a one-page Web service via Wi-Fi access to the general public just to submit news photos.

An Internet blackout or outage can be caused by local signaling interruptions.

Internet blackouts affecting almost entire countries can be achieved by governments as a form of Internet censorship, as in the blockage of the Internet in Egypt, whereby approximately 93% of networks were without access in 2011 in an attempt to stop mobilization for anti-government protests.

End-users also launched an Internet blackout and a physical protest of the new rules, which they called a "guilt by accusation" law.

Most affected by the Internet blackout were middle-class Egyptians as they no longer had Internet access in their homes.

When the Internet blackout took effect, the only websites that remained reachable were those owned and run by the government, including the Oil Ministry's website.

There was a two-day Internet blackout in 2012, which was likely orchestrated by the government.

But the highlight is a black animated banner ad that reads "What to do during an Internet blackout; it suggests reading books, listening to music, or watching a movie.

Chris Stevens, to fight the Internet blackout imposed by Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi.