Government-imposed internet shutdowns would cost more than $7 billion by 2024 – and Pakistan was the worst hit country
Year after year, governments around the world shut down the Internet due to protests or conflicts, elections and even national exams. These incidents not only infringe on people’s digital rights but also have a significant toll on the country’s economy.
Internet outage costs 2020-2024
2024: 167 internet outages in 28 countries, lasting 88,788 hours and costing $7.69 billion. Pakistan was the worst affected country.
2023: 196 internet outages in 25 countries, lasting 79,238 hours and costing $9.01 billion. Russia was the worst hit country.
2022: 114 internet outages in 23 countries, lasting 50,095 hours and costing $24.61 billion. Russia was the worst hit country.
2021: 50 internet outages in 21 countries, lasting 30,179 hours and costing $5.45 billion. Myanmar was the worst affected country.
2020: 93 internet outages in 21 countries lasting 27,165 hours cost $4.01 billion. India was the worst affected country.
According to the latest data from Top10VPNGovernment-imposed internet shutdowns will cost $7.69 billion in 2024. Pakistan was the most affected country ($1.62 billion), followed by Myanmar ($1.58 billion) and Sudan ($1.12 billion).
Although 2024 wasn’t the most expensive year yet – 2022 and 2023 cost $24.61 and $9.01 respectively – it still managed to break some (negative) records.
2024 was the year with the highest number of affected countries. Citizens in 28 countries suffered 167 major self-imposed internet outages, affecting 648.4 million people. The internet disruptions were also the longest on record: 88,788 hours, a 12% increase from 2023. Despite being widespread, social media blocks have decreased overall in 2024 compared to previous years.
This last finding was especially surprising, according to Simon Migliano, head of research at Top10VPN. He told Ny Breaking: “This was likely due to disruptions such as the closure of
Internet shutdowns are the most extreme form of internet censorship, as even the best VPN apps cannot help citizens bypass the restrictions. They occur when a government decides to completely shut down the country’s internet.
These incidents can be limited to specific areas – this is what often happened in India, with regions such as Jammu, Kashmir, Manipur and Punjab affected in the past – and target only mobile or fixed connections or the entire infrastructure.
Every year, various motivations drive governments worldwide to pull the plug on the Internet, despite the economic consequences. Experts found that by 2024, civil conflict was one of the top reasons for government-imposed restrictions – certainly the one with the biggest economic impact.
Iraq again suffered the highest number of internet outages last year, with 61 incidents. These were all motivated by school exams. However, as previously mentioned, Pakistan has suffered the greatest economic impact due to internet and social media blockages related to elections and anti-government protests. Similarly, the internet outages in Myanmar and Sudan were all related to conflict.
Citizens can use a virtual private network (VPN) or similar circumvention tool to bypass government-imposed social media blocks. This security software masks the real IP address location of users so that they appear to be browsing from different countries within a few clicks.
This is exactly why VPN usage will skyrocket worldwide by 2024. Over the course of the year, Proton VPN documented spikes in signups in at least 15 countries.
X (formerly Twitter) was the most blocked social media platform in 2024 due to its extensive blocking in Pakistan (where the platform has been blocked since February), Myanmar and Venezuela.
TikTok followed suit. Experts found that the TikTok shutdown in Kyrgyzstan, which was enforced in April (and is still ongoing), was the main cause and responsible for the majority of the 8,115 hours of blocks on the platform. “Short but still significant blocks” also occur in Senegal and New Caledonia. The latter was especially relevant because it was the first time that a Western democracy (France) imposed such a restriction on the Internet.