A new report dubbed the Global Cost of Internet Shutdown 2019 has assessed the total economic impact of all the major Internet and social media shutdown in the year 2019.
The report made use of the Cost of Shutdown Tool (COST) developed by Netblocks, to estimate in a timely and efficient manner the shutdown that occurred globally.
The key findings as captured by the report include the following:
US$8.05BN:economic cost of internet shutdowns globally in 2019 -an increase of 235% since 2015/16
122 major shutdownstook place in 21 countries during 2019
18,225 hours:total duration of major shutdowns around the world
Internet blackouts:11,857 hours
Social media shutdowns:6,368 hours
Iraq:most economically-impacted nation, followed by Sudan and India
WhatsApp:most-blocked platform with 6,236 total shutdowns