India Lost $1.3 Billion Due To Internet Shutdowns In 2019: Study

A new study released this week showed that India's internet shutdowns that lasted 4,196 hours in 2019 had a large economic impact as it caused an estimated loss of $1.3 billion. In fact, India was the third most economically affected country in the world, after Iraq and Sudan.

A report titled "The Global Cost of Internet Shutdowns" by UK-based internet research firm Top10VPN calculated the data using COST tool which was developed by internet monitoring NGO Netblocks and advocacy group- the Internet Society and uses indicators from the World Bank, ITU, Eurostat, and US Census.

The government imposed shutdowns, largely in Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Rajasthan and UP, among other regions, affected an average of 8.4 million internet users. The report further said that as it has not included incidents where there were blackouts in individual city districts for a few hours, hence the full economic impact is likely higher than the estimated $1.3 billion figure.

The internet shutdown in Kashmir, which was imposed on 4 August, has been reportedly the longest-ever internet block imposed by any country. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that internet is a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution and asked the government administration in Jammu and Kashmir to review all the curbs in a week.

The Top10VPN report showed that the total cost of internet shutdowns across the world stood at $8.05 billion in 2019, an increase of 235 percent since 2015-16. There were 122 major shutdowns in 21 countries for 18,225 hours.

Among social media channels, WhatsApp was the most blocked platform globally, followed by Facebook and Instagram.

Iraq suffered the highest economic impact of $2.3 billion from internet blackout of 209 hours in 2019. It was followed by Sudan which had an impact of $1.87 billion and 864 hours of blackouts.