(TibetanReview.net, Sep23’21) – China has remained the world’s worst abuser of internet freedom for the seventh consecutive year and failed to score a single positive point in the ‘violation of user rights’ category, according to Washington-based international freedom advocacy group Freedom House Sep 22 in its latest global rankings on internet freedom. The report, “Freedom on the Net 2021: The Global Drive to Control Big Tech”, said global internet freedom had declined for the 11th consecutive year. The report has measured the level of internet freedom for 70 countries and assigned them numerical scores ranging from 100 (the freest nation) to zero (the least free). The report determines the level of internet freedom by examining three broad categories: obstacles to access; limits on content; and violations of user rights. It has designated countries with scores between 70 to 100 as ‘Free’ on internet freedom status, those with points between 40 to 69 as ‘Partly-free’, and those scoring less than 39 as ‘Not free’. China has failed to score a single point in the ‘violation of user rights’ category to retain its status as the world’s worst abuser of internet freedom for the seventh year in a row. “The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is tightening its control over the state bureaucracy, the media, online speech, religious groups, universities, businesses, and civil society associations, and it has undermined its own already modest rule-of-law reforms,” the report says. Iceland, Canada and Germany are among the top 10 countries with greater internet freedom. Myanmar, Belarus, and Uganda have witnessed the greatest deteriorations in internet freedom amid electoral and constitutional crises.
