A new report from Top10VPN, an international VPN review website, reveals that deliberate internet shutdowns by governments have cost sub-Saharan Africa $1.74 billion in economic losses.
The Global Cost of Internet Shutdowns report assessed the overall economic impact of large-scale intentional internet and social media shutdowns around the world in 2023.
According to the report, these actions resulted in more than $9 billion in economic losses globally and affected 747 million people through 2023.
“Government internet outages that lasted more than 79,000 hours in 25 countries cost the global economy $9.01 billion in 2023,” the report said.
According to the report, the Middle East and North Africa region ranked fourth in the world with an economic loss of $1.44 billion and 16,547 hours of disruption affecting 105.04 million users. Did.
Russia’s losses were even higher at $4.02 billion, while Ethiopia came in second place with a loss of $1.9 billion, ahead of Iran’s $920.3 million.
The overall impact included 135 hours of internet outages, 3,811 hours of social media outages, and the total cost of internet restrictions reached $57.4 million.
Additionally, other African countries such as Algeria, Guinea, Sudan, Tanzania, Chad, Cuba, and Zimbabwe were also identified as facing economic losses due to government-imposed internet blackouts and social media restrictions.
The report highlighted that school exams, protests, information control, conflicts, military coups, and election interference are the main causes of internet failures.
X (formerly Twitter) faced the most restrictions of any social media platform, enduring 10,683 hours of intentional interruptions, 18 percent more than Instagram and 26 percent more than TikTok.
In 2022, there were 114 internet shutdowns in 23 countries, lasting a total of 50,095 hours and causing economic losses of $24.61 billion. In 2021, there were 50 outages in 21 countries, with a duration of 30,179 hours and a cost of $5.45 billion.
In 2020, there were 93 shutdowns in 21 countries, lasting 27,165 hours and costing $4.01 billion. In 2019, 134 shutdowns in 22 countries lasted 19,207 hours, resulting in economic losses of $8.07 billion.
In 2023, North America experienced a two-hour internet outage that affected 7.99 million users and caused a loss of $1.8 million. In contrast, in South America, 62 hours of disruption caused him a loss of $79.9 million, affecting 192.04 million users.
The report also cited school exams, protests, information control, conflicts, military coups, and election interference as the main causes of internet failures.
In mid-November last year, Kenya suffered a 192-hour social media shutdown due to an alleged leak of secondary exam questions on Telegram, resulting in a loss of $27 million due to internet restrictions.
In Ethiopia, authorities have restricted access to major platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Telegram, and TikTok due to religious tensions.
This resulted in an internet outage for 3,414 hours, a social media shutdown for 11,496 hours, and an economic loss of $1.59 billion.
