Internet shutdown caused Rs65bn loss to Pakistan in 2023

ISLAMABAD: The internet shutdowns have cost more than Rs65 billion to Pakistan’s economy in 2023. Internet shutdowns in 2023 caused loss of a total of $237.6 million to Pakistan’s economy and had affected almost 83 million Pakistanis. Whereas the total number of shutdown duration stood at 259 hours in total, reflects Statista’s latest data.

More interestingly, Pakistan stands at 7th position in the list of most-affected countries (monetary loss) by internet shutdowns during the past year. Statista is a German online platform that specialises in data gathering and visualisation. In addition to publicly available third-party data, Statista also provides exclusive data via the platform, which is collected through its team’s surveys and analysis.

India remains at the top among countries that have shut down the internet for the longest duration in 2023. India blocked access to the internet for more than 470 billion user hours (shutdown times the internet user is affected). While in the list of most affected countries due to internet shutdowns according to Statista, India stands at number four.

Russia remains at the top as the most affected country - in monetary terms - due to the internet shutdown. The cyberspace was blocked for more than 1350 hours which caused loss of over $4 billion to the Russian economy and had affected 113 million internet users in the country in only 2023, the data unfolds. India stands at number four in this specific list with a total loss of over Rs161 billion which has affected over 59 million people.

“In India - the country that cuts internet access the most - shutdowns have in the past clustered in Kashmir and Rajasthan, where they have been used during protests (and preemptively when protests were expected), but also during exams. In 2023, ethnic tensions in Manipur state led to most targeted shutdowns employed by the government”, states Statista official website.

The blocking includes throttling, full blackouts and partial blocks (for example specific social media). Ethiopia is the second most affected country by internet shutdowns which incurred a loss of almost $1.6 billion. At fourth was Iran with loss of almost $1 billion due to internet shutdowns in 2023. Turkey which is also in this list suffered economic loss of $5.8 million due to internet shutdowns which had affected more than 70 million net users in the country.

The total list of 25 countries with the most internet shutdown from top to bottom are Russia, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Iran, India, Iraq, Pakistan, Algeria, Senegal, Azerbaijan, Gulnea, Brazil, Mauritania, Yemen, Venezuela, Kenya, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, Gabon, Tanzania, Cuba, Chad, Zimbabwe and Suriname at last in the list respectively.

Further Myanmar stands at second and Ethiopia at third in the list of countries shutting down the internet for the longest period in 2023. Whereas Iran stands at fourth, and Russia at fifth respectively.

In addition to this, Iceland stands at the top with a score of 94 out of 100 among the top list of countries with the highest internet freedom index score worldwide as of 2023. Estonia stands second and Canada on third. Whereas the top list of 20 also includes the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Australia, UK, Italy, South Korea, Kenya, South Africa and others.

The US has a total score of 76 out of 100 in the Internet Freedom Index 2023 while UK has 79, Japan 77, France 76, Canada 88, and Kenya at the bottom of the list with a total score of 66.

Regionally worldwide, after 2019 Asia experienced most disruption cases of internet connections, over 50 percent if compared to the rest of the world. However, Africa which was previously the region where most internet connection disruption cases occurred from 2015 till 2019 now falls at the second most internet disruptive region.