India Tops the List of World’s Worst Internet Shutdowns; bears the Loss of $2.8 Billion in 2020

New Delhi: India has topped a list that reveals the names of 21 countries that curbed their web access throughout the previous year. As per the reports published by a UK-based security and digital privacy research group, India has witnessed an economic loss of $2.8 billion due to the internet shutdown of a total of 8,927 hours in 2020.

Moreover, the losses that took place due to the restrictions of the availability of internet services imposed by the Indian government, has extended more than two times than the losses caused by the similar imposition throughout 2019.

“Bandwidth restrictions in Kashmir – where the government in 2019 revoked the special autonomous status of the country’s only Muslim majority state – affected access for medicines, businesses, and schools despite the easing of a seven-months-long closure in March”, – stated the report.

The cost of internet shutdown was calculated with the help of indicators from various economic groups, such as the World Bank, a Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Center, International Telecommunication Union, etc., as all of these organizations include social media non-accessibilities into their accounts. 

India’s Ministry of Information and Technology, however, did not respond to the email that was sent to them seeking an answer to the drawbacks that have been found.