India ranked among the top three countries that shut the internet to its citizens during the last year, Myanmar- where the elected Government was toppled by a military coup tops the list.
The report by Top10VPN notes that in 2021, Internet shutdowns grew by 36 percent to over 30,000 hours globally, costing the global economy a whopping $5.45 billion (roughly Rs. 40,300 crores).
India saw a total of 1,157 hours of Internet shutdowns in 2021 — involving a total cost of $582.8 million (roughly Rs. 4,300 crores), Top10VPN reported.
The internet shutdowns affected a population of 486.2 million people in 2021. As many as 50 major Internet outages took place in 21 countries and 75 percent of government outages across the globe were associated with additional human rights abuses.
India’s Internet shutdowns in 2021 affected 59.1 million people in the country.
TOP 10 VPN in its annual report stated that the biggest economic hit in India came from throttling Internet speeds in Kashmir where the connectivity was finally restored in February last year — after 18 months of 2G-only access.
The government also imposed a localized Internet blackout in Delhi as its early response to the large-scale farmers’ protest that resulted in a high cost, according to the report.