cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/41714298
Freedom on the Net 2025: An uncertain future for the global internet (opens pdf)
Internet freedom: Advocacy group calls for ‘countermeasures’ to fight censorship amid persistent authoritarian repression, backsliding in democracies
A new report published by the advocacy group Freedom House found that governments around the world increasingly deploy advanced and widespread measures to control the digital sphere over the past decade and a half, relying on sophisticated censorship technology to suppress online dissent. As new technology and repressive tactics are exported around the world, investment in internet freedom—and the researchers, technical tools, and civil society organizations working to safeguard it—is sorely needed to preserve the promise of an open, global internet.
Key Findings
Global internet freedom declined for the 15th consecutive year. Of the 72 countries assessed in Freedom on the Net 2025 , conditions deteriorated in 28, while 17 countries registered overall gains. Kenya experienced the most severe decline of the coverage period, after authorities responded to nationwide protests over tax policy in June 2024 by shutting down internet connectivity for around seven hours and arresting hundreds of protesters. Bangladesh earned the year’s strongest improvement, as a student-led uprising ousted the country’s repressive leadership in August 2024 and an interim government made positive reforms. China and Myanmar remained the world’s worst environments for internet freedom, while Iceland held its place as the freest online environment.
Half of the 18 countries with an internet freedom status of Free suffered score declines during the coverage period. Only two countries in this group received improvements. People in Georgia experienced the most significant decline in the Free cohort, followed by Germany and the United States, as the ruling Georgian Dream party enacted repressive measures targeting civil society. Authorities in Germany pursued criminal prosecutions against people who criticized politicians, while threats from far-right actors further encouraged self-censorship online. In the United States, growing restrictions on civic space threatened to stifle digital activism, marked by the detention of foreign nationals for nonviolent online expression.
Control over online information has become an essential tool for authoritarian leaders seeking to entrench their regimes. Governments in the countries that suffered the most extreme declines over the 15 years of global deterioration in internet freedom—Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela—intensified their control over the online environment in response to challenges to their rule. Authorities in these settings expanded restrictions on content, escalated surveillance of electronic communications, and imposed more severe penalties on those who expressed dissent online, particularly during protests and elections. The pattern illustrates how digital repression has proven essential for regime security in authoritarian states.
Online spaces are more manipulated than ever, as authorities seek to promote favored narratives and warp public discourse. Of the 21 indicators covered by Freedom on the Net, the one that assesses whether online sources of information are manipulated by the government or other powerful actors has undergone the most consistent global decline over the past 15 years. Information manipulation campaigns have reshaped online spaces, with common methods including paid commenters who masquerade as ordinary internet users, news sites mimicking trusted outlets, misleading content generated by artificial intelligence (AI), and prominent social media influencers who post progovernment content without clear or formal affiliation.
The report also defines measures to combat censorship and improve internet freedom:
Counter restrictions on freedom of expression: Governments should maintain access to internet services and digital platforms, as imposing outright or arbitrary bans on social media and messaging platforms unduly restricts free expression. Legal frameworks that address online content should uphold internationally recognized human rights and adhere to the standards of legality, necessity, and proportionality.
Combat manipulation of the online environment: Governments should encourage a whole-of-society approach to fostering a high-quality, diverse, and trustworthy information space. Companies should invest in staff who work on public policy, access to reliable information, trust and safety, and human rights, and consistently adopt processes to ensure that engagement with government officials regarding online content does not undermine free expression and other fundamental rights. Across the board, support for independent media outlets and local civil society organizations that disseminate credible information is sorely needed.
Counter disproportionate government surveillance and restrictions on privacy: Governments should ensure that surveillance programs are grounded in human rights principles and work together to create interoperable privacy regimes that comprehensively safeguard peoples’ data. Laws should include guardrails that limit the ways in which private companies can use personal data for AI development and in their AI systems. Companies should mainstream end-to-end encryption in their products, support anonymity software, and uphold other robust security protocols, including by notifying victims of surveillance abuses and resisting government requests to provide special decryption access.
…
