NEW REPORT: Authoritarian Internet Controls Drive 16th Consecutive Year of Decline in Global Internet Freedom
The report found 16 of 38 countries worsened as governments expanded shutdowns, age checks and AI-related restrictions on speech.
- Global internet freedom declined for the 16th consecutive year, with conditions deteriorating in 16 of 38 countries assessed, according to a Freedom House report released yesterday.
- Authoritarian regimes are reengineering the internet into a system of control, deciding who can connect, what they can see, and whether they can be heard, said Kian Vesteinsson, author of the report and Freedom House's deputy director for research.
- Iranian authorities imposed a nationwide internet shutdown lasting approximately 88 days, the longest on record, while only 8 of the 38 countries assessed saw improvements in online freedom conditions.
- Policymakers in 10 of the 38 countries implemented age-assurance laws to protect children, though these measures introduced new barriers to online access and risks to privacy and security.
- Democratic governments and technology companies must counter authoritarian efforts to disconnect people from the global internet and safeguard rights as new technologies reshape online access.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Age Checks, AI Regulation and Censorship Put Internet Freedom Under Pressure
By Justin Hendrix, Ramsha Jahangir, Tech Policy Press (TPP) | Fact-Checked by Irfan Ahmad.Image: Jonathan Kemper - UnsplashSince its launch, Tech Policy Press has covered the findings of the annual Freedom on the Net report from Freedom House, a nonprofit organization founded in 1941 to advance democracy and human rights. As TPP noted last year, it is typically grim reading, a chronicle of governments suppressing dissent, people arrested for non…
From withholding millions of accounts to sorting out personal identities, an international report paints a "inclusion map" and reveals how the stranglehold on open digital space in 2026.
Our country has found itself in the neighbourhood of rogue regimes.
Serbia received 66 out of 100 points on the internet freedom list, which is one point less than last year, and Freedom House also points to detentions for posts on social media… The article Freedom House warns of the decline of internet freedom in Serbia appears first on Business and Finance.
BNS reports that “On Thursday, the US think tank Freedom House published its 2026 Internet Freedom Ranking, in which Estonia ranked first among the countries evaluated in the ranking.” At least people with a conservative worldview do not agree with this, because Internet freedom means, above all, freedom of speech, which is constantly being violated in “liberal democracy.” One of the most well-known places for exchanging ideas on the Internet is…
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