Internet Shutdowns Cost Global Economy $7.69 Billion in 2024; Pakistan Faces Heaviest Losses
A new report by Top10VPN highlights the severe economic repercussions of government-enforced internet shutdowns in 2024, with global losses amounting to a staggering $7.69 billion. Pakistan bore the brunt of these disruptions, incurring losses of $1.62 billion, followed by Myanmar at $1.58 billion and Sudan at $1.12 billion.
Governments worldwide continue to employ internet blackouts as a mechanism to maintain control, often citing reasons such as managing civil unrest, suppressing political protests, overseeing elections, or even curbing exam cheating. However, these measures come at a significant cost to both civil liberties and economic stability.
Although the financial toll in 2024 was substantial, it remained below the record-breaking figures of prior years. The economic impact peaked in 2022 with losses of $24.61 billion, followed by $9.01 billion in 2023. Nevertheless, 2024 set troubling new records in terms of the frequency and duration of shutdowns.
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The year witnessed a record-high 28 countries implementing digital blackouts, resulting in 167 major outages. These disruptions impacted 648.4 million people globally and spanned a cumulative 88,788 hours—a 12% increase over the previous year—marking the longest period of documented internet shutdowns in history.
Interestingly, while overall internet restrictions surged, there was a decline in social media blockades compared to earlier years.
Simon Migliano, Head of Research at Top10VPN, commented in an interview with TechRadar:
“This was probably due to disruptions like Pakistan’s shutdown of X generating a lot of attention, whereas the long-running internet blackouts in regional Myanmar and Azerbaijan fell off the agenda after a while.”
