INTERNET SHUTDOWNS HAVE COST OVER $10 BILLION TO WORLD ECONOMY IN 2022

Deliberately shutting down the Internet around the world costs the global economy billions of dollars every year. Internet shutdowns are usually caused by a technical glitch on the part of the service provider, but this is not the only reason for shutting down the Internet. Many governments around the world also shut down the Internet for various purposes. These include controlling protesters in a specific area, preventing violence from escalating, and so on.

A new Top10VPN report states that government-ordered Internet shutdowns have cost the global economy more than ً 10 billion so far in 2022. This is double the amount of the previous year and still, we have half of the year 2022. Top10VPN's research team officially detected Internet shutdowns in 16 countries and measured the daily cost of Internet shutdowns, especially in Russia and Pakistan, stopping millions of online protesters. Other reasons for the government's Internet shutdown included attempts to prevent students from cheating on exams in Sudan, Syria, Algeria, and elsewhere. Internet shutdowns in non-disputed areas were no cheaper than in disputed areas, which cost the global economy more than $ 6 million on a daily basis.

It is noteworthy that the Top10VPN report focuses only on large Internet shutdowns without accounting for the additional economic and human rights costs of small blockages. Therefore, it is likely that the total cost of the global economy will actually exceed the report.

However, experts agree with the pattern in the Top10VPN report, which predicts that costs will continue to spiral out of control as internet shutdowns become commonplace around the world to limit online activity for a variety of reasons.