Human freedom shouldn’t end at a national border, and neither should the right to access and disseminate information on the web. According to a recent report by the non-government watchdog Freedom House, however, global Internet freedom has declined for the fifth year in a row now.
Freedom House discovered declines in online freedom of expression in approximately 32 of 65 countries reviewed since June 2014. The greatest declines were seen in Libya, France and Ukraine.[1]
What explains this decline? Government censorship and Internet filtering certainly bear some responsibility, which have made it more difficult for people to speak freely online even with an anonymous name.
“State authorities have … jailed more users for their online writings, while criminal and terrorist groups have made public examples of those who dared to expose their activities online,” according to the report.[2]
Countries put pressure on big Internet firms
Governments across the globe have started demanding Internet firms based in the US, like Google and Twitter, to remove damaging content, even satire, directed towards national leaders.
Russia’s communications watchdog, for example, has threatened to fine Facebook, Google and Twitter and block their services. Since the start of President Vladimir Putin’s third term in 2012, the government has passed laws which give supervisory bodies the power to regulate and block websites.[3]
“Undermining online encryption and anonymity weakens the Internet for everyone, but especially for human rights activists and independent journalists,” the report reads.[2]
Sanja Kelly, project director for the report, said recent revelations about U.S. surveillance efforts have driven many governments to increase their own surveillance efforts. She claims many countries are using “stronger surveillance and data retention laws” as a consequence of documents leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.[2]
“Instead of real reforms, we are seeing more countries pass laws to increase their surveillance power,” she told sources.[2]
The researchers discovered that approximately 61 percent of Internet users reside in countries where criticism of the government, military or ruling family has been censored, and approximately 14 of 65 countries have passed laws in recent years to increase electronic surveillance.[2]
Less freedom and more violence
The report also found, “a troubling increase in violence against bloggers, new cases of political censorship, and rising prices for Internet and mobile phone services.” For instance, in Morocco, police detained 17-year-old rapper Othman Atiq for three months for ridiculing authorities in online videos. Some regimes have even resorted to the public flogging of bloggers.[2]
In the Ukraine, the report noted, there were “more prosecutions for content that was critical of the government’s policies, as well as increased violence from pro-Russian paramilitary groups against users who posted pro-Ukraine content in the eastern regions.”[2]
In Turkey, the report found that the government tried to ban five WordPress websites related to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a designated terrorist organization. The secure protocol, however, made it too difficult for authorities to ban the five websites. As a result, the Turkish government decided to ban WordPress altogether, along with the 70 million websites that use the platform.[1]
Freedom House was particularly concerned about laws and policies, such as the ones found in France, which require Internet firms to store mega data noting the time, place and destination of online communications.
Among the 65 countries assessed, Iceland, followed by Estonia, Canada, Germany, Australia, the United States and Japan, were concluded to be the most free. China trumped both Syria and Iran in terms of the lack of online freedom. Cuba and Ethiopia, on the other hand, were within the top five least free countries on the web.[2]
All in all, 18 countries were considered free, 28 were considered partly free and 19 were considered not free.[2]
Sources:
[2] Yahoo.com
[3] TheGuardian.com
