There is less freedom on the Internet

The ratio of Internet penetration and Internet freedom (on a 100-point scale, the higher the score - the less freedom)

The non-governmental organization Freedom House published the fifth annual report on the status of Internet freedom in 65 countries of the world - Freedom On The Net 2014 ( PDF, 989 pages ). The report was pessimistic: in almost half of the countries the situation worsened. Unfortunately, the trend is not the first year.

Between May 2013 and May 2014, in 41 countries around the world, new laws were passed or proposed that stipulate responsibility for expressing their views on the Internet, increase the powers of the authorities to control content, or expand the ability to spy on citizens.

“Since May 2013, 38 of 65 countries have registered arrests of users for expressing opinions on the Internet on political or social issues,” the report says. - The pressure on independent news sites, which remain among the few sources of free information in many countries, has dramatically increased. Dozens of civilian journalists were attacked while they were covering the conflict in Syria and anti-government protests in Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine. Other countries have increased online media licensing and web regulation. ”
')
An interesting effect on the world was the documents published by Edward Snowden. For many countries, they have become an excuse to strengthen their own surveillance of users and regulate the Internet. Worse, some countries began to require companies to host servers within the country, which only makes it easier for the authorities to access user data.

The targets of advanced attacks with the installation of Trojans and “bugs” are often the political opposition and human rights defenders.

The maximum deterioration of the situation with Internet freedom over the past year has been registered in three countries: Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. If it goes on like this, soon we will catch up with the world leaders of this disappointing rating - Iran and China.

Well, the most free are called Iceland (it’s the world leader in Internet penetration), Estonia, Croatia and Germany.

The following parameters were taken into account when compiling the rating: barriers to Internet access (weight 25 points), content restrictions (35), violations of user rights (40). Here are the results for some countries.