Online freedom declines, amid NSA effect

Washington (AFP) - Internet freedom suffered this year as a growing number of countries stepped up efforts to spy on users and censor online postings, a global survey showed Thursday.

The report by the non-government watchdog group Freedom House said online freedom declined in 36 of 65 countries surveyed.

In some cases, governments use revelations about surveillance by the US National Security Agency to justify efforts to boost their own monitoring of Internet users and to crack down on dissent.

"Countries are adopting laws that legitimize existing repression and effectively criminalize online dissent," the report said.

"More people are being arrested for their Internet activity than ever before, online media outlets are increasingly pressured to censor themselves or face legal penalties, and private companies are facing new demands to comply with government requests for data or deletions."

The lowest score for Internet freedom was in Iran, followed closely by Syria, China, Cuba, Ethiopia and Uzbekistan.

Nineteen countries were rated "free," with the highest scores for Iceland and Estonia. Thirty-one countries were rated partly free and 19 "not free."

But a majority of countries saw declines in freedom.

Forty-one passed or proposed laws to criminalize or limit online speech or to expand surveillance between May 2013 and May 2014, the report said.

Read the original here:

Online freedom declines, amid NSA effect