Amid global Internet shutdowns, Internet Society launches ‘NetLoss’ calculator

The Internet Society launched the NetLoss calculator, a tool for measuring the economic impact of internet shutdowns worldwide. Hosted on the Internet Society’s Pulse Platform that tracks and analyses shutdowns, NetLoss uses an econometric framework to understand the impacts of shutdowns and provide an estimate of their economic damage. In addition to the estimated cost of an internet shutdown (i.e. the loss in GDP), the NetLoss calculator also estimates:

• The change in the unemployment rate due to a shutdown.
• The amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) lost due to a shutdown.
• Risk of a shutdown: the probability that a country will experience a shutdown.

Internet shutdowns globally reached a record high in 2022, as governments worldwide restricted or blocked internet access and services during civil unrest, school exams, or elections, every time resulting in major economic consequences.