Is Turkey rich enough to get away with limiting Internet access?

The Turkish government has recently been expressing its wish to create a new "economic narrative" to bring the country back to a high growth track. Certainly, a rich climate for entrepreneurship would play a key role in developing a fresh economic story. However, it is questionable whether the country can achieve this goal by limiting access to certain Internet services from time to time - among other restrictions. 

Such blockages have many negative effects on daily economic activity, mainly by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A recent Brookings report found that Internet shutdowns in 19 countries cost $2.4 billion in economic activity last year. These economic losses included $968 million in India, $465 million in Saudi Arabia, $320 million in Morocco, $209 million in Iraq, $116 million in Brazil, $72 million in the Republic of the Congo, $69 million in Pakistan, $69 million in Bangladesh, $48 million in Syria, $35 million in Turkey, and $20 million in Algeria, among others.

When the spillover effects of such blockages are added to these country's daily economic and entrepreneurship activities, the real costs are greater. 

Apart from disrupting lives and families, such shutdowns weaken overall economic development and exacerbate the plight of small and medium-sized businesses in these countries, the report noted. 
"As long as political authorities continue to disrupt Internet activity, it will be difficult for impacted nations to reap the full benefits of the digital economy," it added. 

In the fall of 2015, Turkey notoriously blocked Twitter and Facebook in response to concern over the spread of images of a terrorist bombing of a public rally. Government officials justified this action by claiming that...