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8,927 hrs of blackout: Worst internet shutdowns cost India $2.8 bn 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

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The cost of internet blackouts were calculated using indicators from groups including the World Bank.

Archana Chaudhary | Bloomberg
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.

Some countries known to limit Internet access or censor material like China and North Korea were not included in the report because researchers relied