ISLAMABAD – Pakistan named as the single most affected nation in terms of financial losses due to internet shutdown in 2024, said an annual report released by an independent VPN reviewer.
In its 2024 annual report on the cost of internet shutdowns,Top10VPN.com said Pakistan suffered the losses of $1.62 billion in the outgoing year followed by Myanmar ($1.58 billion) and Sudan ($1.12 billion).
It said internet shutdown lasting 9,735 hours affected 82.9 million users in Pakistan.
The extended blockades of X (Twitter) in Pakistan, Myanmar and Venezuela meant that it was by far the most disrupted social media platform in 2024.
The report further highlighted that 167 major self-imposed internet outages took place in 28 countries – the highest number of countries in a single year, to date.
The internet shutdown in 2024 cost the world economy $7.69 billion, it said.
“88,788 hours of government internet disruptions, a 12% increase on 2023 and highest to date. This included: Internet blackouts: 49,101 hours and Social media blocks: 39,687 hours”.
It highlighted that 648.4 million people affected by deliberate internet outages across the world in 2024.
This Global Cost of Internet Shutdowns report calculates the total economic impact of every major deliberate internet outage and social media shutdown around the world in 2024.
This kind of deliberate outage is internet censorship in its most extreme form. Not only do they infringe on citizens’ digital rights but they are also catastrophic acts of national economic self-sabotage.
While the cost of internet shutdowns may have dropped by 15.8% in 2024 compared to last year, there were more hours of deliberate internet disruption than ever before.
The duration of internet shutdowns was up 12% in 2024 compared to 2023. This was the highest number of hours in a single year to date.
