Internet Shutdowns Cost India A Hefty $584 Mn In 2023

India suffered an economic loss of $585.4 Mn on account of internet shutdowns in 2023, as per a report by UK-based review platform Top10VPN.

The report noted that the country saw 7,812 hours of internet blackouts and 144 hours of social media shutdowns during the year, which impacted 59.1 Mn Indians. Overall, India stood fifth on the list of 25 countries that saw the highest number of internet shutdowns globally. 

“India imposed 30 major internet shutdowns in 2023. As in previous years, these internet outages were highly localised to specific districts, cities and even villages, and tended to be in response to civil unrest, often preemptively,” added the report. 

On a year-on-year basis, India performed worse than 2022 when it clocked 34 major internet disruptions which led to an economic loss of $184.3 Mn. The country also fared worse than 2021 numbers when the revenue drain stood at $583 Mn.

The biggest contributor to India’s tally was the internet shutdowns in Manipur, which, as per the report, accumulated a loss of $318 Mn to the economy over the course of the year. In total, the Northeastern states saw 5,108 instances of internet shutdowns last year. 

The list also comprises states and union territories such as Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, among others which were impacted by shutdowns. 

Globally, Top10VPN estimated the economic cost of shutdowns at $9.01 Bn in 2023 which spanned 79,238 hours of government-imposed internet disruptions. This means that India accounted for nearly 6.5% of the total global economic loss suffered on account of internet shutdowns.

The cost of these disruptions was calculated based on various indicators from the World Bank, ITU, Eurostat and US Census, and spanned social media shutdowns, internet blackouts and severe ISP throttling.

Internet shutdowns in India are not a rarity. According to SFLC.in’s internet shutdown tracker, India saw 92 incidents of internet shutdowns in 2023 and the country has already logged another instance of internet blackout just days in 2024. 

On top of that, the Centre has also been known to clamp down on specific websites and push the social media platforms to actively take down content based on its requests. While authorities cite reasons such as curbing rumours and disinformation for shutdowns, they have been at odds with digital rights activists over shutdowns. 

Internet disruptions entail a heavy cost as many users depend on online services for commerce and information, and lead to reduced trade and thus an economic cost.