Websites in the Netherlands, Finland and at Wikimedia go dark as operators judge keeping them online too risky

Summary

Parts of the internet are going dark, according to a commentary in The Guardian by Chris Stokel-Walker. Dutch government websites, including its digital ID login service, have become unavailable, Finland has taken public services offline, and Wikimedia has switched off some of its systems. The commentary says that in most instances the people running the sites switched them off deliberately because keeping them online was too risky, not because of a cyber-attack. The author argues that human inaction, rather than the technology alone, is the real culprit, and that more shutdowns should be expected.

Timeline

1. The Guardian

   22 Oct 2026, 13:46 UTCSource ↗

   In a commentary by Chris Stokel-Walker, The Guardian reports that Dutch government websites, including its digital ID login service, are unavailable, Finland has taken public services offline, and Wikimedia has switched off some of its systems, mostly deliberately because keeping them online was too risky.