Restriction grows on internet freedoms

Governments all over the world are increasingly restricting internet freedoms as penetration spreads and activists turn to the still-evolving medium, according to a comprehensive analysis of practices in 37 nations.

The report to be released Monday in the US found that some countries imposed their first political controls on internet content in the past two years, while those that had already restricted access redoubled their efforts with new tools and bureaucracies.

The 410-page report by Freedom House, which relied primarily on researchers on the ground in the countries surveyed, was funded by the United Nations and other sources and follows up on a similar 2009 document that studied 15 nations.

Nine of those 15 had worse scores for overall internet freedom in the latest review – based on obstacles to access, limits on content, and user surveillance and repercussions – and a majority of the newly tracked countries also demonstrated negative trends.

Based on points awarded for various factors, the report ranked Estonia as the most free of the 37, followed by the US, Germany, Australia and the UK. The most repressive internet policies were found in Iran, with Burma, Cuba, China, and Tunisia coming in behind it.

Iran, China, and Russia were among those covered in both surveys that displayed increased repression.

The authors warned that Russia and four other countries that now enjoy relative freedom of expression and communication over the internet “are at particular risk of suffering setbacks” during this year and 2012. That group also includes Thailand, Jordan, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

Noting that the net remains Russia’s “last relatively uncensored platform for public debate”, the report said that as more citizens have gained access in the past two years, freedoms have been eroded. It cited blocking of opposition websites, 11 arrests of bloggers in 17 months, and evidence that officials are hiring web users to promote the dominant United Russia party.

Also of concern are phone calls from Russian police and prosecutors to service providers and web content producers asking that material be removed, leading to self-censorship. Physical beatings of online journalists and the technology assaults known as denial-of-service attacks against even mainstream websites are typically triggered by unflattering coverage of the powerful.

The bigger picture that emerges is of regimes ranging from democratic to strict authoritarian moving to deploy a great number of techniques, many of them subtle, to stop the internet from being used to distribute and encourage dissent.

China, with the greatest online population in the world, continues to refine its strategy, reducing opportunities for anonymous activity and proclaiming vague laws that require internet companies to censor on a massive scale.

While determined citizens can find services for evading filters, the report judges the combination of techniques to have been a success, considering that less than 15 per cent of the country has heard of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Other countries apparently agree, as they are adopting similar tactics.