According to a Business Insider report, internet shutdowns and censorship in Sudan, Myanmar, Nigeria, and other places, have cost the global economy $5.5 billion.
AlTaghyeer: Agencies
The report noted that Myanamar was the country most affected by the 2021 internet shutdowns, costing the country an estimated $2.8 billion dollars in the process.
Internet shutdowns in Myanmar reportedly became very frequent after the military took over the country in a coup d’etat on February 2nd of 2021.
Business Insider also noted that Nigeria had lost an estimated $1.5 billion after the government banned access to social networking site Twitter.
“From advertising to customer support, social media platforms are a vital tool for companies around the world and when they’re taken offline they can really suffer,” an expert was quoted in the Business Insider report.
The expert, Samuel Woodhams, noted that with the 2022 already witnessing internet shutdowns in Sudan and Kazakhstan, the issues are “far from becoming things of the past”.
Sudan Shutdowns
Internet services in Sudan were shut down completely after Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s coup against the military government on October 25th, 2021.
The citizens of Sudan were unable to access online services for a period of about three weeks before services were restored on the 18th of November of last year.
Internet interruptions have however continued in Sudan after the 18th of November, with the putschist government shutting down internet and calling services the day of mass demonstrations.
QZ’s website reported that the internet shutdowns that took place “for a total of 1,560 hours” had come at “an economic cost of $1.8 billion.”
The total cost of the overall internet shutdown operations in Africa came at a cost of $2.1 billion.
