Internet Censorship Efforts Growing and Shifting, Freedom House Report Finds

Restrictions on Internet freedom continue to grow -- and the threats against it are shifting, said human rights group Freedom House’s 2012 report on worldwide Internet freedom. The report said Estonia had the most Internet freedom in the past year, followed by the U.S. and Germany. Iran was found to have the least online freedom, followed by Cuba, China and Syria. The report, released Monday, assessed events and shifts in the Internet freedom situation in 47 countries between January 2011 and May 2012. Researchers evaluated the situation in each country and assigned a numerical score, with 100 being the worst possible score. Estonia scored 10, while Iran scored 90; the U.S. scored 12, according to Freedom House (http://xrl.us/bnq8xh).The more repressive governments on the list continue to use traditional censorship methods like filtering and blocking content, but they are now supplementing those with “nuanced” tactics, Sanja Kelly, the report’s lead author, said at a Freedom House event Monday. Governments are increasingly engaging in proactive manipulation of online content, including hiring pro-government bloggers to attack anti-government bloggers’ credibility and paying people to bombard anti-government blogs with false information, she said. That tactic had previously only been found in Russia and China, but has now spread into countries like Iran and Belarus, said Freedom House. The report said 19 of the 47 assessed countries had passed new laws impacting Internet freedom since January 2011. Those have included a new law in Malaysia that holds intermediaries like ISPs responsible for “seditious” comments users post online, Kelly said. “As a consequence, in some of the environments we've seen some of the intermediaries almost voluntarily taking down the content they fear will get them into trouble."

There has also been an increase in technical attacks, including the hijacking of bloggers’ accounts over undesirable postings, Kelly said. In one incident, Amman News posted a pro-democracy statement by tribal leaders in Jordan; within 24 hours, the website had been hacked and the post was removed, she said. Physical attacks related to Internet content have also increased, particularly those on online journalists who are targeted for content they report on from the field, Kelly said. The data indicate more countries saw declines in their Internet freedom score than improvements, Kelly said. The report identified seven countries Freedom House thinks are “at particular risk of suffering setbacks related to internet freedom” -- Malaysia, Russia, Sri Lanka, Libya, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Rwanda.

Discussion at the event highlighted the report in the context of the Arab Spring and violent protests in 20 nations over “Innocence of Muslims,” an anti-Islam video posted on YouTube. Some protests have centered on U.S. diplomatic targets, such as protestors’ breach of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others. Google Public Policy Director Robert Boorstin defended the company’s decision to temporarily remove access to the video in Egypt and Libya but keep it available in other nations where protests occurred. Google removed access in those nations because of the violent, “sensitive situation” that had developed, he said. That did not mean the company was turning away from its commitment to freedom of expression, Boorstin said. “Our default position is that people should have the chance to see the information."

The Internet freedom situation in Syria is problematic, said Mohammad Al Abdallah, executive director of the Syria Justice and Accountability Center. The problems are as basic as Syrians not being able to access the Internet because of a lack of electricity, he said. Advocates in Syria are also not getting assistance from Google, Al Abdallah said. Boorstin said he would not discuss any internal discussions the company is or isn’t having with the U.S. government, but said the company continues to do all it can to provide tools to its users.

Despite the negative data, Kelly said she was encouraged by activists’ pushback on Internet freedom issues in some of the surveyed nations. Researchers found advocacy activities resulted in at least small Internet freedom victories in 23 of the 47 nations. “I'm quite encouraged that in the end, free speech is going to prevail,” she said. “But it is a long and hard battle.”