The annual Freedom on the Net report from pro-democracy research group Freedom House has found that global internet freedom has declined for the 14th consecutive year. The report highlighted that Kyrgyzstan experienced the sharpest downgrade in 2024, as President Sadyr Japarov cracked down on online organizing and silenced digital media. Myanmar and China tied for having the worst record in terms of internet freedom, with Myanmar becoming the first country in a decade to match China’s low score. The military government in Myanmar imposed censorship and surveillance of online speech, including blocking access to virtual private networks.
China, known for its “great firewall” that isolates the country and blocks threatening content, dismissed the report, claiming that its people enjoy various rights and freedoms in accordance with the law. Other countries that were downgraded in the report include Azerbaijan, which imprisoned people over social media posts, and Iraq, where a prominent activist was killed after a Facebook post led to protests. The report highlighted that internet users in three-quarters of the countries covered faced arrest for nonviolent expression.
On a positive note, Iceland was recognized as having the freest online environment in the world, followed by Estonia, Canada, Chile, and Costa Rica. Zambia also showed significant improvement in terms of internet freedom, with a growing space for online activism. For the first time in 2024, the report assessed conditions in Chile and the Netherlands, noting strong safeguards for human rights online. However, the report raised concerns about the lack of safeguards against government surveillance in the United States, placing it at 76 out of 100 on a scale of protection of human rights online.
The report also highlighted the impact of elections on internet freedom, pointing out that the internet has been “reshaped” due to polls. It expressed concerns about technical censorship that limited opposition parties’ ability to reach supporters and suppressed access to independent reporting during election campaigns. With the November 5 US presidential election and several other elections scheduled in the last three months of the year, the report emphasized the challenges faced by more than a billion voters who had to navigate a censored, distorted, and unreliable information space while making major decisions about their future.
