Internet shutdowns more than doubled in 2017: ICRIER study
26 Apr 2018
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The number of internet shutdowns in India more than doubled in 2017 as against the figures for the previous year, while the total hours of shutdown increased by only 20 percent, says a report.
“Internet shutdowns are in the same class as network disruptions and represent a tool of internet censorship,” said the report, The Anatomy of an Internet Blackout: Measuring the Economic Impact of Internet Shutdowns in India. It has been brought out by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).
According to the report, internet shutdowns are a growing concern in India. “At a time when India is leveraging the impacts of a generative technology like the internet to give boost and expression to Digital India, the rising number of shutdowns epitomises the difficulties on the pathway to realising India’s digital ambitions,” it adds.
The Shutdown Tracker Optimisation Project (STOP) run by a civil society organisation Access Now, reported last September that India with 54 shutdowns had topped the list of 30 countries that witnessed shutdowns in the preceding 21 months.
The ICRIER reports points out that there are broadly two types of Internet shutdowns – complete and partial. While partial shutdowns, such as throttling or blocking are a growing concern with manifold implications, the ICRIER study focuses only on the economic impact of a complete internet shutdown.
Key results from ‘econometric estimations’ indicated that 16,000 hours of internet shutdown in India cost the economy more than $3 billion between 2012 and 2017. Another 12,000 hours of mobile internet shutdowns cost the economy about $2.35 billion during the same period.
