Countries That Censor the Internet Most

Worldwide availability of the Internet has grown considerably in recent years. In 2011, more than one-third of the world’s population had access to the Web, up from less than one-fifth in 2006. Despite the significant improvements, many oppressive governments continue to limit Internet use to control the news and social media.

Read: Countries That Censor the Internet Most 

Recently, Freedom House, an independent watchdog organization, published “Freedom of the Net 2012,” the third edition of its report measuring Internet use in 47 countries. The organization measured a wide range of countries, from the most democratic to the most restrictive. Based on the report, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 countries with the most oppressive Internet censorship.

Conventional wisdom suggests that only the smallest and most technologically backward countries have the greatest restrictions on access to the Internet and freedom of speech. However, a review of the data suggests this isn’t the case. Of course, many of these oppressive governments are in small or less-developed nations, such as Ethiopia, which has a GDP per capita of just $374, or Bahrain, which has an economy 1/657th the size of the United States. On the other hand, China — the second-largest economy in the world — is also on the list.

Regimes in countries with the most restrictions on Internet use have very different ways of stifling freedom. In countries such as China, sophisticated filtering services have been used to block the flow of information hostile to the government. Meanwhile, in places like Cuba, high costs to connect continue to prevent a large portion of the population from using the Web. In Iran, the government collects personal data on Internet users.

In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., Freedom House representative Sonja Kelly explains that as people live more of their lives online, the measure of how free a country’s Internet access is directly correlates with a country’s overall freedom. “The Internet has really changed how we socialize, communicate and conduct business,” she notes. “Having these restrictions implemented impacts almost every single person in that country.”

Since Freedom House began the survey last year, it noticed that new methods were employed to stifle Internet expression, Kelly says. For instance, 14 countries now use government-sponsored commentators to determine which information is pro- or anti-government and to write rebuttals to anti-government posters. In addition, she notes that violent attacks against Internet bloggers have become more common. Such attacks used to primarily target traditional journalists.

The United States, on the other hand, scored near the top of Freedom House’s survey. Kelly said the group’s only concerns were some surveillance measures enacted following Sept. 11, which the government argued were in the interest of national security. The group also cited the introduction of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, which, had they been enacted, would have clamped down on websites trafficking copyrighted material and counterfeit goods. Opponents claimed both pieces of legislation would curb free speech. Efforts to kill the bills in Congress were successful.

Regarding opposition to the proposed laws, Kelly says, “I think that just showcases that activism in civil society in this country and just living in a democratic society actually is quite self-correcting.”

When calculating a country’s Internet freedom score, Freedom House looked at three different criteria: obstacles to access, limits on content and violations of user rights. The higher the score in these areas, the greater the Internet censorship, according to Freedom House. The highest possible score was 100. From there, 24/7 Wall St. took the bottom 10 countries in terms of Internet freedom. We provided additional context on Internet access in each of these countries and included recent related news events. Gross domestic product per capita was obtained from The World Bank.

These are the 10 countries with the most aggressive Internet censorship.

10. Saudi Arabia

> Internet freedom score: 71
> Internet penetration: 48%
> Population: 29 million
> GDP per capita: $20,540

The Internet has only been available in Saudi Arabia since 1998. Although there are now almost 12 million broadband connections, less than half the population had access last year. Saudis have embraced social networking, particularly Twitter, but there are often bans on select pages containing political messages. The government vigilantly monitors content and has imprisoned bloggers. In August 2010, Saudi Arabia temporarily blocked messaging and email services on all BlackBerry phones, which automatically encrypt all sent messages.

9. Bahrain
> Internet freedom score: 71
> Internet penetration: 77%
> Population: 1.3 million
> GDP per capita: $18,184

More than three out of every four people in the country of 1.3 million have access to the Internet, which Freedom House notes is one of the highest penetration rates in the Middle East. However, the government has increasingly limited the information that can be accessed. The country blocked the distribution of information over BlackBerrys in 2010. During the 2011 uprisings against King Hamad, the government arrested foreign journalists, such as a crew from CNN, and a prominent local blogger Mahmood al-Yousif. As the unrests unfolded, the government increased its Web surveillance and sharply slowed down access to the Internet.

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8. Vietnam
> Internet freedom score: 73
> Internet penetration: 35%
> Population: 89 million
> GDP per capita: $1,411

Since 2000, the number of people in Vietnam with access to the Internet has risen from 0.3% to 35% in 2011. As the country has established a larger Web presence, the government has sought to increasingly control content, blocking Facebook and religious websites. Crackdowns are also common, as the government has launched technology-based attacks against critics, while numerous bloggers have been arrested and imprisoned. In August, prominent blogger and activist Le Quoc Quan — previously jailed for his activism in 2007 — was beaten with iron bars by men he suspects were sent by local police.

7. Myanmar
> Internet freedom score: 75
> Internet penetration: 1%
> Population: 55 million
> GDP per capita: N/A

For decades, Myanmar had a notorious reputation for cracking down on information painting the government in a negative light. Foreign journalists could not enter the country and the ruling military junta censored anti-government information online. Despite its past, the country went through a series of political and human rights reforms recently, easing these censorship restrictions. In August, the government announced it was abolishing media censorship, lifting bans on websites like the BBC and Reuters. However, journalists and human rights activists greeted the move cautiously since the country’s censor board is still in power.

6. Ethiopia
> Internet freedom score: 75
> Internet penetration: 1%
> Population: 87 million
> GDP per capita: $374

Access to the Internet is already incredibly low — only 1% of the approximately 87 million Ethiopians are online. Even for the few who are plugged in, access is limited. Sites like Blogger have been down since the disputed 2005 elections, and very slow Internet speeds make watching videos on social media impossible. The Los Angeles Times reported in June that voice-over-Internet-protocol services, such as Google Voice and Skype, have been banned. Furthermore, internal sources told Freedom House that the government is currently testing software that will allow officials to gain user information and passwords, which those sources said could be used to engage in “full-fledged phishing attacks against government opponents in the future.”

5. Uzbekistan
> Internet freedom score: 77
> Internet penetration: 30%
> Population: 30 million
> GDP per capita: $1,546

Although Uzbekistan’s president has publicly embraced the Internet, the country’s government still actively censors online content. The country has a centralized, state-owned telecommunications infrastructure that enables the government to monitor and restrict Web access. Websites pertaining to human rights or criticizing the government are often filtered, while the country has temporarily shut down access to search engines and, in one instance, text-messaging services. Freedom House also notes that, in 2011, security officers at an Uzbek airport confiscated laptops and checked browser histories. Security services also have been suspected in technical attacks on websites, including conducting distributed denial of service and phishing attacks.

4. Syria
> Internet freedom score: 83
> Internet penetration: 23%
> Population: 23 million
> GDP per capita: $2,893

About 23% of Syrians have access to the Internet, while about 63% had cell phones by the end of 2011. Ever since the breakout of protests against President Bashar al-Assad and his regime, Syrians using cell phones and posting videos to places such as YouTube have been critical in distributing information about the widespread violence taking place in the country, especially as foreign journalists are largely banned from the country. Freedom House notes that the government has responded to this violence by shutting down mobile and Internet networks, filtering more websites hostile to the current regime and “various sophisticated means of monitoring and tracking Internet users online activity.” Many bloggers and other Internet users also have been arrested, most notably, the blogger and government activist Razan Ghazzawi.

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3. China
> Internet freedom score: 85
> Internet penetration: 38%
> Population: 1.3 billion
> GDP per capita: $5,430

China has an increasingly complex system to filter out Internet content that challenges the Chinese Communist Party. Freedom House notes that both the government and the private sector “employ hundreds of thousands of people to monitor, censor, and manipulate online content.” Swift action is often taken if information against the government hits the Web — in March, 16 websites were closed and at least six people were arrested after rumors regarding infighting among government leaders was disseminated online. Despite the restrictions, citizens have still found ways to get their messages across. While sites like Twitter are still blocked, Chinese citizens have increasingly been able to bypass the filters. Furthermore, tens of millions of Chinese use microblogging services such as Sina Weibo, where the speed of transmission is able to outpace the censors.

2. Cuba
> Internet freedom score: 86
> Internet penetration: 5%
> Population: 11 million
> GDP per capita: $5,397

Social media has given the world a better view of Cuba and some of the dissent taking place. But unlike many larger countries that use sophisticated tracking and blocking software, Cuba primarily relies on high costs to access computers and the Internet to keep people from accessing sensitive information. While the average monthly Cuban salary is only $16 a month, the average computer costs $722. “The Cuban Internet is like their old cars — Cuba is stuck at Web 1.0,” Larry Press, a professor at California State University Dominguez Hills told the Miami Herald. Press also notes that despite the rise in cell phone use, most of those phones do not have Internet access.

1. Iran
> Internet freedom score: 90
> Internet penetration: 21%
> Population: 79 million
> GDP per capita: $4,526

The crackdown on Internet freedom in Iran has been well documented since mass protests over the presidential election in the summer of 2009 led to crackdowns by the government. As tensions escalated after the election, the Iranian government blocked many news websites and lowered bandwidth, sometimes shutting off Internet service altogether. Since the protests ended, Internet restrictions have gotten more subtle. Freedom House notes that over the past couple of years, the country has upgraded its filtering service, hacked company’s digital certificates and has even worked to establish its own, separate Internet service. Before March’s parliamentary elections, the country required Internet cafe owners to check the identity cards of customers and record information about each user.

Samuel Weigley and Alexander E. M. Hess

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