Context:

• Recently, ‘Freedom on the Net 2023: The Repressive Power of Artificial Intelligence’ report was released by Freedom House.
•  It evaluates Internet freedom in 70 countries, accounting for 88% of the world’s Internet users.

More on News:

• The report, the 13th edition of an annual study of human rights online, covers developments between June 2022 and May 2023.
• The report evaluates countries on five censorship methods:
  • Internet connectivity restrictions
  • blocks on social media platforms
  • blocks on websites
  • blocks on VPNs
  • forced removal of content
• Freedom House is a Washington DC-based non-profit, global Internet freedom.

Key Findings:

• On a range of 1 to 100 where ‘100’ represented the highest digital freedom and ‘1’ the worst repression, India scored 50, while Iceland, with 94, emerged as the country with the best climate of Internet freedom.
• World’s worst environment for Internet freedom
  • China
  • Myanmar
• Digital Repression Surges in Iran: The sharpest rise in digital repression was witnessed in Iran, where authorities shut down Internet service and increased surveillance in a bid to quell anti-government protests. 
• Global Increase in Widespread Arrests: The number of countries where authorities carry out widespread arrests and impose multi-year prison terms for online activity has risen sharply over the past decade, from 18 in 2014 to 31 in 2023.
• Elections & digital Repression: Ahead of election periods, “many incumbent leaders criminalized broad categories of speech, blocked access to independent news sites, and imposed other controls over the flow of information to sway balloting in their favor.
• Internet-Blockade: India also figured among the list of countries that “blocked websites hosting political, social, or religious content”, and deliberately disrupted ICT networks. 
  • Use of Pro-Government Commentators: India used pro-government commentators to manipulate online discussions, and conducted “technical attacks against government critics or human rights organizations”

News Source: The Hindu

DOWNLOAD PDF