According to an independent report, Russia’s ban on access to social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and X has cost the Russian economy over £3.1 billion ($4.02 billion).

The ban, which first came into force in March 2022 following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, was the most damaging internet restriction of its kind to any economy in the world in 2023, according to data analysis by global tracker Top10VPN.

Its annual report said government-imposed internet shutdowns would cost the global economy an estimated £7.06 billion ($9 billion) in 2023, examining 196 outages in 25 countries.

Russia was the worst-hit country, followed by Ethiopia and Iran, whose internet outages cost them £1.5 billion ($1.96 billion) and £722 million ($920 million) respectively. Russia’s ban on Instagram, Facebook and X/Twitter was first implemented in February 2022 and continued until 2023 as a Russian court deemed Meta “extremist.”

The move came in retaliation for the social network’s efforts to restrict state media such as Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik within the European Union (EU) and limit the spread of misinformation.

The longest complete internet shutdown of 2023 was imposed by Indian authorities in Manipur and lasted for over 5,000 hours. Mobile internet services were suspended in the northeastern Indian state following ethnic clashes between minority hill tribes, the Kukis and the Meitei majority community in May last year.

The Kukis, who enjoy protected status as minorities, protested against plans to extend this status to the Meitei community, which makes up about 53 percent of Manipur’s population. This would have given the Meitei the same benefits and quotas in government jobs and education as the minority tribes.

Since the conflict began, more than 200 people have been killed and nearly 60,000 have been displaced.

While total internet costs fell 67 percent compared to 2022, the report found, duration increased 18 percent to a total of 79,238 hours.

The researchers also found that about 50 percent of government internet outages in 2023 were linked to additional human rights violations, most commonly restrictions on freedom of assembly.

“Government internet outages typically take the form of total internet blackouts or social media blocking,” said the report’s authors, Samuel Woodhams and Simon Migliano. “Another censorship tactic is internet throttling, which involves limiting internet speeds to the point that anything beyond simple text-based communication becomes impossible, such as live streaming of videos of protests or human rights abuses.”

“This type of deliberate disruption is internet censorship at its most extreme,” the authors state. “These internet outages not only violate citizens’ digital rights, but are also acts of national economic self-harm.”