A report by Top10VPN, a website focused on virtual private networks (VPN), states that the global Internet shutdown affected 486.2 million population in 2021. At least 50 major internet shutdowns in 21 countries. Government interruption was 75 percent of the reason for internet shutdown, that is, internet shutdown was done on the orders of the government.
Myanmar was the number 1 country in terms of internet shutdown. There was an internet shutdown for 12,238 hours and it affected 22 million users. The cost of internet shutdown in Myanmar was $2.8 billion (about Rs 20,700 crore). Nigeria is at number two in this list. There the Internet outage affected 104.4 million people. It involved a cost of $ 1.5 billion (about Rs 11,100 crore).
India ranks after Myanmar and Nigeria. That is, the third in the world. Last year, there was internet shutdown in the country for 1,157 hours. It had 317.5 hours of complete internet blackout, while 840 hours of bandwidth throttling occurred. That is, only 2G services were given during this period. India’s internet shutdown affected 59.1 million people in 2021.
Top10VPN said that Kashmir has the highest internet speed in India. Internet was restored in the Valley in February last year after providing only 2G access for nearly 18 months. The report said that the 2G speed made the internet in Kashmir functionally almost useless. This caused damage to education and business during the pandemic. According to the report, due to massive farmers’ protests, the government also implemented localized internet blackouts in Delhi, which increased the cost.
<!–
–>
.