Internet Blackouts Cost Global Economy $10 Billion With 106 Net Shutdowns In India During 2021: Report
|The PM Modi-led Indian government had enforced a total of 106 internet shutdowns in 2021 and was on top of the list of countries that applied internet shutdowns for the fourth year in a row.
Internet shutdowns in numerous parts of the world resulted in costing the global economy almost $10 billion, according to a report in Top10VPN. As per the statistics in the release, the figure is double the cost of 2021. The report also stated that there already had been more internet shutdowns in the six months of 2022 compared to the entirety of 2021.
Top10VPN also listed the major shutdowns across 16 different nations across the globe, which they claimed cost $10.6 billion as against $5.45 billion in 50 big shutdowns in 2021.
Loss Of Significant Economy
The report mentioned above notes three different types of shutdowns: social media shutdowns, internet blackouts and severe throttling, where mobile networks can only transmit text messages and voice calls.
According to the report, the most significant portion of $10.6 billion was reported from Russia, where internet shutdowns resulted in costing $8.7 billion. The blackouts in Russia kick-started exactly after it invaded Ukraine earlier in February to limit the protests.
Governments decided to clamp down on the internet services in Algeria, Sudan and Syria in an attempt to stop students from cheating in exams. Top10VPS also revealed that it used Netblocks and the Internet Society's Cost of Shutdown Tool to estimate the entire economic cost.
"Regional shutdown costs are derived from the region's economic output as a proportion of national GDP," the report said. The methodologies section calculated partial shutdown costs in proportion to the latest publicly available internet market-share information for affected countries.
Internet Blackouts In India
The PM Modi-led Indian government had enforced a total of 106 internet shutdowns in 2021 and was on top of the list of countries that applied internet shutdowns for the fourth year in a row, according to a report in The Indian Express.
The report added that there was a minimum of 182 documented internet shutdowns during last year in 34 nations across the globe, as against 159 documented across 29 nations in 2020. In 2022 so far, India implemented internet shutdowns in multiple areas across the country amid communal violence to stop the spread of fake news and maintain harmony.
As per the BBC, a government has the power to restrict access by ordering internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict access to their subscribers. This affects social media usage, and as a more extreme measure, it can also ask ISPs to block all internet access as well.