April 6, 2026, 7:06 am | Read time: 4 minutes
When your favorite site seems to take hours to load, you might jokingly think the internet is broken. Minor disruptions can hinder access to services or websites, but rarely are they due to a major network outage. Is it even possible to just pull the main plug and have no internet anymore? TECHBOOK examined the situation in Germany for this article.
There is no single main plug to pull or a red button to press for the internet. The internet, as we know it today, consists of over 100,000 individual subnetworks. These are typically the networks of major internet providers or larger corporate networks. These subnetworks are all interconnected through nodes, forming the internet.
Technical and Legal Hurdles
This is the central technical reason why the internet in Germany cannot simply be shut down. In addition to technical hurdles, there are legal reasons as well.
Germany has national laws, such as the Telecommunications Act (TKG). This regulates how access to the network occurs and primarily defines the security framework. What should be done if attacks on the national network infrastructure occur? In such cases, access to certain parts of the internet could be restricted as a pure protective measure.
Above all, Article 5 of the German Basic Law looms. It defines freedom of expression in Germany. Free access to the internet is now considered a fundamental right in light of Article 5. Without such access, the right of each individual to fully inform themselves or participate in societal debates would be significantly restricted. Due to the legal framework, a complete shutdown of the internet in Germany would not be possible.
In parallel, Germany is also part of the EU and bound by European law. There are also regulations here that prohibit arbitrary exclusion from free data traffic.
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Shutdowns Occur in Authoritarian Regimes
What is possible and regularly done by security authorities in Germany is the blocking of individual content or the shutdown of entire websites. Technically, the connection to certain nodes is severed. Certain websites then become inaccessible. Legally, such a shutdown is even necessary if the content of a website violates national laws, such as copyright infringements or the distribution of child pornography.
There are frequent reports claiming that a country’s government has completely shut down the internet for its population. These are usually countries where the government has powers not based on democratic principles—in short, authoritarian regimes.
In such states, nearly all power lies in the hands of the government. The ruling regime uses this power to order network operators in the country to shut down all subnetworks. However, this is only possible in countries where freedom of expression is not desired by the state. The internet then becomes inaccessible to the population. The rulers, of course, still have access to all content.
The rest of the world doesn’t notice these shutdowns in a single country at all. Data streams continue to flow around the clock. Only certain subnetworks are cut off from the flow of data. Therefore, even with a complete shutdown, it would still be possible to access the internet through technical detours, such as tapping into satellites.
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Access to the Internet, a Sign of Freedom of Expression
For Germany, such a scenario is not possible for technical and legal reasons. Only if online content violates applicable laws may and will the associated websites be blocked.
Freedom of expression and its alleged restriction in Germany are repeatedly questioned in social media debates. Yet, the very free access to the internet and the associated participation in such social media debates is the best proof of how well freedom of expression functions in Germany.