The internet is getting less free every year, according to a new report, with state interference leading to an 11-year decline.
According to Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2021, of the 70 nations evaluated, 48 pursued legal or administrative action against technology companies.
While, as the report points out, many of these measures worked to rein in abuses, others limited free expression, privacy and public accountability.
"The rights of internet users around the world, especially the rights to free expression and privacy, are being massively violated as a result of recent state actions," says Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House.
"Instead of using regulation to curb the immense power of tech companies, many governments are wielding it for their own repressive purposes."
China topped the list for the seventh year in a row, imposing heavy prison sentences for online dissent, independent reporting and private communications, with particular censorship around the topic of Covid-19.
The US also fared badly, showing its fifth year of decline. False, misleading, and manipulated information continued to proliferate online, says Freedom House, even affecting public acceptance of the 2020 presidential election results.
However, there are words of praise for the Biden administration which, says the report, has taken promising steps to enforce stronger protections for internet users.
Elsewhere, more governments arrested users for nonviolent political, social or religious speech than ever before. Meanwhile, internet access was suspended in at least 20 countries, and 21 blocked access to social media platforms. And authorities in at least 45 countries are suspected of obtaining sophisticated spyware or data-extraction technology from private vendors.
In Myamnar, internet freedom dropped by 14 points over the year — the biggest ever decline recorded — after the military refused to accept the results of the November 2020 general elections and launched a coup earlier this year.
There were also major internet freedom declines in Belarus, following the August 2020 election victory of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and in Uganda, where the internet eas shut down and social media platforms blocked during general elections in January 2021.
"Governments everywhere are invoking a vague need to retake control of the internet — whether from foreign powers, multinational corporations, or even civil society," says Adrian Shahbaz, Freedom House's director for technology and democracy.
"In the absence of a shared vision for a free and open internet, many states are imposing restrictions on the free flow of information across borders, denying people access to life-changing tools based solely on their location. This fragmentation is diminishing the emancipatory power of the internet."
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September 24, 2021 at 04:23PM
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