World’s Worst Internet Shutdowns Cost India $2.8 Billion in 2020

  • Lack of internet access cost $4 billion globally, study says
  • Blocking web access coincided with protests, freedom curbs
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
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Internet shutdowns cost India $2.8 billion, putting the South Asian nation at the top of a list of 21 countries that curbed citizens’ web access in 2020.

India -- the second-worst-hit nation by the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of overall confirmed infections -- accounted for about three-quarters of the $4 billion lost worldwide to internet curbs. It’s losses more than doubled compared to 2019, a report from a U.K.-based digital privacy and security research group showed.

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World’s Worst Internet Shutdowns Cost India $2.8 Billion in 2020