by Bahareh
How Internet freedom continues to
slide Summary
Recent revelations by former NSA
contractor Edward Snowden, regarding the U.S.’s secret surveillance activities,
made news around the globe, but countries all over the world have been
increasing their monitoring and censoring of internet activity. A new Freedom
House study, which tracked internet censorship in 60 countries, showed internet
freedom has been on a steady decline for the past 3 years.
The most restrictive countries have
been Iran, China, and Cuba. Iran and China have consistently used more advanced
technology to monitor and block internet content, which has led to more and
more arrests of users posting dissenting opinions online. Cuba requires permits
for users to access the global internet, and these passes are only given to a
very few select citizens; usually only employees of the government or employees
of select professions.
Even democratic countries have been
constantly increasing internet monitoring and censorship over the past year. India
has been blocking more and more websites, the U.S. has increased its monitoring
of internet content and data, and Brazil has increased its restrictions on
online speech, mostly related to the country’s political system.
Overall most countries have been
increasing their internet monitoring and restrictions over the past year. 35 of
the 60 countries studied by Freedom House have either passed laws allowing more
government monitoring authority or upgraded their government internet
surveillance technology. This is particularly concerning to authoritarian
countries such as Russia and Sudan; these countries use the government
surveillance to track down human rights activists and dissidents.
Along with more surveillance,
numerous governments are passing more laws to control who can say what online;
until recently many countries did not have any internet specific laws. Gambia
and the United Arab Emirates have both recently passed laws allowing the
government to jail any individuals that express anti government views online.
Although many of the new laws and
restrictions are meant to target political activists, an increasing number of
ordinary users are running into legal troubles simply for posting opinions and
jokes online. Numerous users, merely posting complaints on Facebook have been
arrested, and in once case a woman in Mumbai was arrested for simply liking a
post.
With more and more countries looking
to pass laws regulating the internet use, the next few years will be critical
for the future of the internet. Supporters of internet freedom must act quickly
to ensure the new laws are in guidance with our basic human rights of privacy,
freedom of expression, and assembly. At the current rate the next generation of
internet users may be facing a much more restrictive and censored network.
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