Report Finds Internet Freedom Under Threat

A newly released report on internet freedom found rising threats from cyberattacks, politically motivated censorship and government control even as the number of global online users continued to grow at explosive rates.

The report, Freedom on the Net 2011: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media [pdf], measured trends in 37 countries based on barriers to access, limitations on content and violations of users’ rights. By its measure, Estonia had the greatest degree of internet freedom, followed by the United States. The US-based Freedom House, which published the report, may not have taken into account the rise in US government unilateral takedowns of internet domains for intellectual property violations and child pornography, or discreet US monitoring of activities online. These have led a number of countries to call for a multilateral venue to discuss such actions.

Bottom of the internet freedom list is Iran, followed by countries such as Belarus, Burma, China, Saudi Arabia and Thailand. Treatment of bloggers, journalists and human rights activists was of particular concern.