While threats to Internet freedom are growing and have become more...
While threats to Internet freedom are growing and have become more diverse in some countries, there is “a pushback by citizens and activists who have found ways to sidestep some of the restrictions and use the power of new Internet-based…
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platforms to promote democracy and human rights,” Freedom House said in a new report, Freedom on the Net 2011. Some countries have shown “increased government blocking, filtering, legal action and intimidation to prevent users from accessing unfavorable content.” Venezuela, Azerbaijan, Rwanda and other nations experienced “politicized censorship and user rights violations emerged, often in the period before or during elections,” the report said. Out of the 37 countries researched, “the governments of 15 were found to engage in substantial blocking of politically relevant content” from 2009-2010, it said. Those countries include Bahrain, China, South Korea, Thailand and Ethiopia, the report said: Some citizens in these countries used tools like YouTube and Facebook that “eased the impact of content censorship and at times undermined it significantly.” Countries with higher Internet penetration rates also had high levels of Internet freedom, the report found. South Africa, Kenya and India have lower penetration rates and limited restrictions on Internet freedom. Ethiopia, Cuba and Burma, with almost no Internet access, “have heavy restrictions on Internet use,” the report said.