Economic cost of internet shutdowns worldwide 2021

Worldwide, there were over 8,218 hours of internet shutdowns as of July 2021, costing the global economy over three billion U.S. dollars. According to recent data, Myanmar was the country that was most affected by internet blackouts and social media shutdowns - online users in the country endured a total of 4894 hours of shutdowns, which affected 22 million users and had an economic impact of approximately 2.4 billion U.S. dollars. In comparison, internet shutdowns in India occurred for a total duration of 1032 hours and cost the local economy 368.1 million U.S. dollars. Online shutdowns and blackouts are generally seen as an indicator of low internet freedom.

Number of affected users and economic cost of internet shutdowns in selected countries in 2021

Characteristic	Total cost (in million USD)	Shutdown duration (in hrs)	Affected internet users (in millions)
Myanmar	2,400	4,894	22
India	368.1	1,032	17.2
Nigeria	12	48	104.4
Uganda	51.5	692	10.6
Syria	47.1	104	5.9
Armenia	17.6	41	1.9
eSwatini	15.8	216	0.5
Colombia	14.6	24	1.8
Cuba	13.1	32	7
Bangladesh	8	48	112.7
Pakistan	3.1	3	97.8
Iran	2.4	96	1.4
Republic of Congo	1.4	72	1.5
Sudan	1.2	3	13.2
Ethiopia	1.1	8	21.3
Chad	0.9	30	1.1
Russia	0.7	6	1.4
Senegal	0.2	7	4.9

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Release date

July 2021

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

2021

Supplementary notes

The economic cost of each shutdown is calculated using the Netblocks and the Internet Society’s Cost of Shutdown Tool, which is based on the Brookings Institution method. Regional shutdown costs are derived from the region’s economic output as a proportion of national GDP. More information on the Methodology can be found here.

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