Myanmar and China have world’s ‘worst environment’ for internet freedom
Al Jazeera
Freedom on the Net report says Kyrgyzstan showed sharpest downgrade, while Iceland had ‘freest online environment’.
Global internet freedom has declined for the 14th year in a row, with Myanmar and China tied for the world’s worst record, a new study says.
Freedom House, a pro-democracy research group based in the United States, also said in its study on Wednesday that Kyrgyzstan showed the biggest drop in 2024 as President Sadyr Japarov clamped down on online organising and the government moved to silence digital media.
The Kyrgyz authorities shuttered the investigative media website, Kloop, which had reported on allegations by an opposition leader of torture in custody.
The Freedom on the Net (FOTN) report said protections for human rights online diminished in 27 of the 72 countries it covered.
Myanmar became the first country in a decade to match China for a low internet freedom score, the report found. The military government in the Southeast Asian country has cracked down on dissent, imposing systematic censorship and surveillance of online speech.
