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<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">According to the Top 10 VPN yearly report, deliberate internet shutdowns in 2023 cost the global economy $9.01 billion. </p>

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">It also examines every significant shutdown that occurred.</p>

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify"><img alt="Economic impact of Internet shutdowns" src="http://gospeedcheck.com/filemanager/data-images/imgs/20240109/government-internet-outages-to%C2%A0expense-over-%249-billion-in-2023.jpg" style="display:block; height:400px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:640px"></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center"><em>Economic impact of Internet shutdowns</em></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">These are some specific statistics:</p>

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	<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">$9.01 billion: the economic cost of 2023’s internet outages</p>
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	<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">196 major self-imposed internet shutdowns happened in 25 countries</p>
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	<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">79,238 hours of government internet disruptions (Internet blackouts: 25,535 hours; Social media blocks: 53,703 hours)</p>
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	<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">747 million people impacted by deliberate internet shutdowns in 2023</p>
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	<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">Twitter (X): the most banned social media network with 10,683 hours of intentional interruption, 18% more than Instagram and 26% more than TikTok</p>
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	<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">Rusia: the most severely impacted country ($4.02 billion), followed by Ethiopia ($1.59 billion) and Iran ($920.3 million).</p>
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	<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">Iraq: the country with the most internet shutdowns (66), nearly all of which were related to school exams.</p>
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	<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">Manipur, India: with more than 5,000 hours of stoppage time, this was the longest shutdown in 2023.</p>
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	<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">Impact on human rights: In 2023, 50% of government internet disruptions were linked to new violations of human rights, most usually limitations on the right to assemble.</p>
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<p style="text-align:justify">Read more: <a href="https://gospeedcheck.com/article/concerns-about-censorship-are-raised-by-irans-increase-in-internet-prices-1302"><strong>Iran's Internet Price Increase Raises Censorship Concerns</strong></a></p>
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