The World Cracks Down on the Internet

[Commentary] The notable part of the recent Freedom House annual report on Internet freedom is the suggestion that, when it comes to Internet freedom, the rest of the world is gradually becoming more like bottom-ranking China and less like higher scoring Iceland.

The researchers found that Internet freedom declined in thirty-six of the sixty-five countries they studied, continuing a trajectory they have noticed since they began publishing the reports in 2010. A research analyst at Freedom House said that authoritarian regimes might even be explicitly looking at China as a model in policing Internet communication. Governments are turning to their legal systems, enacting new laws that restrict how people can sue the Internet and other technologies.