With a cumulative loss of USD 1.62 billion, Pakistan led the world in monetary losses brought on by internet and social media app disruptions and shutdowns. This number was higher than the casualties of civil war-torn nations like Sudan and Myanmar.

Dawn stated that the global internet outages lasted for 88,788 hours, resulting in a total financial loss of USD 7.69 billion, according to a report by independent VPN reviewer Top10VPN.com.

The information, which was made public on Thursday, was limited to the financial effects of deliberate internet shutdowns, such as complete blackouts, social media bans, and throttling, which took place 167 times across 28 nations.

According to the Dawn, Simon Migliano, Head of Research at Top10VPN.com, called these intentional disruptions “extreme forms of internet censorship that constitute self-destructive acts for national economies in addition to violating citizens’ digital rights.” In 2024, the overall cost of internet shutdowns dropped by 15.8% from the year before, although they took 12 percent longer. A total of USD 9.01 billion was lost during 196 shutdowns that lasted 79,238 hours in 25 countries in 2023.

Top10VPN.com documented 18 instances of deliberate internet shutdowns in Pakistan in 2024, mostly due to demonstrations, “information control,” and elections. 82.9 million customers were impacted by these interruptions, which lasted for 9,735 hours in total.

The continuous suspension of social networking site X, which started on February 18 and is believed to have cost USD 1.34 billion, was the most expensive interruption. The second-highest expense was related to the internet shutdown in Balochistan, which cost Dollar 11.8 million over 864 hours and took place from July 16 to August 21 in response to demonstrations by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee in Gwadar.

The Cost of Shutdown Tool (COST), created by NetBlocks, an open platform that tracks internet filtering, was utilized in the research. COST uses methods from the Brookings Institution and CIPESA, a digital rights organization supported by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), to quantify the economic effect of internet shutdowns.

The economic effect was calculated by Brookings’ 2016 research using a country’s GDP, the length of the disruption, and the proportion of the population that was impacted. The GDP contribution of certain applications and services was also taken into consideration.

Internet shutdowns were carried out by governments worldwide in 2024 for a number of causes, including as military takeovers, demonstrations, censorship, exam cheating prevention, and wars. With Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India among the top six nations affected by these limitations, Asia was found to be the most affected area.

The second most costly shutdown, which lasted 20,376 hours and cost USD 1.58 billion, occurred in Myanmar. With 12,707 hours of interruption and a USD 1.12 billion cost, Sudan came in second. With a USD 1.12 billion deficit, Venezuela came in fourth place, followed by Bangladesh ($796.6 million) and India ($322.9 million).