Daily Management Review

Analysts: Global economy lost over $ 8B due to Internet outages in 2019


01/10/2020


The global economy lost $ 8.05 billion in 2019 due to deliberate Internet outages, mainly caused by governments of different countries. This was calculated by Top10VPN specialists.



needpix.com
needpix.com
Outages occurred in 21 countries, there were 122 of them, and their total duration was more than 18 thousand hours. Compared to 2016, the shutdown price for the global economy grew by 235%. Moreover, last year was a record in this regard.

“Internet blackouts are stopping the entire digital economy,” said Samuel Woodhams, head of digital rights at Top10VPN. “They also cause long-term damage by contributing to a loss of investor confidence and harming the informal economy, disrupting the flow of money that social media platforms and mobile cash transactions."

Among the countries, Iraq was the leader in the cost of outages: the economy of this country paid for it $ 2.3 billion, followed by Sudan ($ 1.9 billion), India ($ 1.3 billion), Venezuela ($ 1.1 billion) and Iran ($ 611 billion). According to analysts, most often the Internet was turned off in response to protests and riots.

The findings in the Top10VPN report prove the growing trend of tightening government control of the Internet around the world. A number of countries have officially legislated for control over the Internet within their territory.

source: top10vpn.com