In 2024, Pakistan led the world in financial losses resulting from internet and social media shutdowns, with a staggering total of $1.62 billion in economic impact. This placed the country ahead of war-torn nations like Sudan and Myanmar, which also suffered significant losses.
The report, published by independent VPN reviewer Top10VPN.com, highlighted that 88,788 hours of global internet disruptions led to a collective financial loss of $7.69 billion. The data focused on deliberate internet shutdowns, including complete blackouts, social media restrictions, and throttling, which occurred 167 times across 28 countries.
Simon Migliano, the head of research at Top10VPN.com, described these outages as extreme forms of internet censorship, which not only violate citizens’ digital rights but also inflict significant economic harm.
Although the overall financial losses from internet shutdowns dropped by 15.8% in 2024 compared to the previous year, the duration of these disruptions increased by 12%. In 2023, internet shutdowns lasted for 79,238 hours and cost $9.01 billion.
For Pakistan, 18 deliberate internet shutdowns were tracked in 2024, primarily due to elections, information control measures, and protests. These disruptions lasted 9,735 hours and affected 82.9 million users. The most significant cost was attributed to the ongoing shutdown of the social media platform X, which began on February 18, with an estimated loss of $1.34 billion. Another notable disruption occurred in Balochistan between July 16 and August 21, in response to protests in Gwadar, resulting in a loss of $11.8 million.
The report utilized the Cost of Shutdown Tool (COST), developed by NetBlocks, which calculates the economic cost of internet disruptions based on methodologies from the Brookings Institution and the digital rights group CIPESA.
Globally, internet shutdowns in 2024 were triggered by various factors, including conflicts, censorship, protests, and military coups. Asia was the most affected region, with significant disruptions in countries like Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India. Myanmar had the second-highest financial impact from shutdowns, with $1.58 billion in losses, followed by Sudan with $1.12 billion, and Venezuela with a similar amount. Bangladesh and India also faced significant disruptions, costing $796.6 million and $322.9 million, respectively.
X was the most frequently disrupted social media platform, with outages lasting a total of 20,322 hours. TikTok, Signal, Facebook, and Instagram also faced significant shutdowns.
