Censoring peaceful protesters isn’t the only reason the government is deliberately shutting down the internet in 2022, but researchers say it’s the main target and will do the most damage to the global economy. According to a report by Top10VPN, the cost of a government-ordered internet shutdown in 2022 will cost the global economy more than $10 billion . That number has nearly doubled from 2021, and 2022 is only halfway through. The biggest damage to the global economy was Russia, with a loss of $8.77 billion. The country’s ongoing social media controls are starting soon after the invasion of Ukraine, aimed at restricting peaceful protests and press freedom by blocking access to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. So far this year, Top10VPN has tracked government shutdowns in 16 countries, calculating the daily cost of shutdowns, particularly in response to protests ranging from hundreds of thousands in Pakistan to hundreds of millions in Russia.
Other reasons for governments to shut down the internet include moves in Sudan, Syria and Algeria to prevent students from cheating on academic exams. These shutdowns not because of conflict are not cheap, sometimes costing the global economy more than $6 million a day. If Top10VPN’s 2022 track is as incomplete as it has been in previous years, the overlooked part of the cost of internet shutdowns to the global economy may be more than they report. The Top10VPN report focuses on major internet shutdowns, ignoring the additional economic and human rights costs of smaller shutdowns. Their annual report for 2021 recorded just 50 internet shutdowns — far fewer than the number recorded by Access Now, an international digital human rights nonprofit. From 2016 to 2021, Access Now recorded 931 internet shutdowns. The pattern emerging in VPN researchers’ data for early 2022 is in line with experts’ predictions: losses will continue to climb as governments use internet shutdowns more widely, hoping to limit online activity during conflict. Access Now campaigner Felicia Anthonio told The Verge last year: “Since we started tracking government moves to shut down the internet, their use has exploded at an alarming rate.”
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