Thread by @IndiaSpend

India tops the list of 21 countries that blocked civilians' access to the internet in 2020, affecting 10 mn users and costing $2.8 bn, as per the 2020 Global Cost of Internet Shutdowns report by Top10 VPN @top10vpn, a UK-based company. Follow this thread to know more:

Globally, the cost of internet disruptions halved from $8 bn in 2019 to $4 bn in 2020. In India, they more than doubled from 4,196 hrs in 2019 to 8,927 hrs in 2020. The cost of these disruptions for India also doubled from $1.3 bn to $2.8 bn

India had 75 major internet shutdowns in #2020. But many short blackouts were highly targeted, affecting groups of villages or individual districts. They have not been included in calculating the cost of disruptions, which is hence likely to have been higher than the ℮$2.8bn

In Kashmir, even after the communication blockade following abrogation of Article 370 was lifted in March 2020, the authorities continued to “severely throttle internet speeds, with citizens only able to access 2G connections”, the report says

The internet shutdown in Kashmir had affected the working of medical equipment in hospitals, outpatient visits & delivery of medicines, we reported in Sept 2020:
indiaspend.com/in-jk-shutdown…

Of 385 internet shutdowns between January 2012 and March 2020, 237 were to prevent a law and order issue while 148 were imposed to contain an ongoing law and order breakdown, data from the New Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Center show
internetshutdowns.in

While most shutdowns in India in 2019 lasted from a few hours to 3 days, 41 have lasted for over 72 hours. A majority of the shutdowns--301 out of 381--were targeted at mobile internet services alone, we reported in January 2020:
indiaspend.com/100-internet-s…

You can access the 2020 Global Cost of Internet Shutdowns report here:
top10vpn.com/cost-of-intern…