Governments around the world are expanding censorship and surveillance of the Internet as overall online freedom declined for the fifth consecutive year, according to a report from a group that tracks democracy and human rights.
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Increased website blocking and intimidation of Internet users, however, threatened to hamper India’s steadily improving Internet freedom.
Despite the porn ban, threats to net neutrality and the arrests of people criticising politicians early on, India has managed to achieve significant improvement in terms of internet freedom, as per an independent report. “We hope that the information consolidated in this report is used by the government to develop better internet policy for Indian citizens”, said Chinmayi Arun, Research Director of the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University Delhi.
According to the report, a few of the most frequently censored topics were criticism of authority, satire, political opposition, blasphemy, and LGBT issues.
The researchers found 61 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries where criticism of the government, military or ruling family has been subject to censorship.
The annual report by non-government watchdog Freedom House found declines in online freedom of expression in 32 of the 65 countries assessed since June 2014, with “notable declines” in Libya, France and Ukraine.
The report highlighted China because the nation with probably the most extreme restrictions on Internet freedom, adopted by Syria and Iran.
Surveillance laws and technologies multiplied: Governments in 14 of 65 countries passed new laws to increase surveillance since June 2014 and many more upgraded their surveillance equipment.
“As President Xi Jinping made ‘cyber sovereignty” one of the priorities of his tenure as leader of the Chinese Communist Party, internet users endured crackdowns on ‘rumors, ‘ greater enforcement of rules against anonymity, and disruptions to the circumvention tools that are commonly used to bypass censorship’.
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Libya, and Ukraine, mired in a territorial conflict with Russian Federation also experienced sudden falls. Sri Lanka and Zambia, each of which just lately underwent modifications in authorities management, have been credited with making the most important enhancements in general on-line freedom. Internet access became more affordable in Cuba after diplomatic relations were restored with the U.S., but it remains out of reach for the majority.
