ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has joined the nearly two dozen nations that have been labeled “not free” for enforcing harsh penalties and internet restrictions as global internet freedom declined for the 14th year in a row.
Freedom House, a Washington, DC-based organization that monitors democracy and threats to freedom worldwide, evaluated internet freedom in 72 nations in its report, Freedom on the Net 2024.
To show how governments censor and control the digital sphere, the report uses a “standard methodology to determine each country’s internet freedom score on a 100-point scale.” Pakistan and 21 nations, including China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran, received a score of 27 out of 100 (not free). With a score of 50, India, along with 31 other nations, received the status of “partially free.” Nineteen nations were positioned ‘free’ by the report.
There were eight categories used to calculate this score: intentionally disrupted internet connectivity; Blocking social media platforms; blocked websites with content that is political, social, or religious; a user of the internet is detained or jailed for their online activities; for their online activities, an internet user was physically attacked or killed; online conversation being manipulated by pro-government commentators; new regulation or mandate expanding observation or limiting secrecy passed; and a new law or directive was passed that increased censorship or punishment.
Pakistan fulfilled seven of these eight requirements, preventing the adoption of a “new law or directive increasing surveillance or restricting anonymity.”
According to Freedom House, online safeguards for human rights decreased in 27 of the 72 nations, while 18 states saw improvements. Internet users were detained for political, social, or religious expression in at least 56 of the 72 countries covered by the report. People were physically attacked or killed in at least 43 countries as a result of their online activities.
Over 5 billion people have access to the internet, and 79% live in countries where people were arrested or jailed for posting content about political, social, or religious issues, according to the 2024 report. Myanmar, where the military regime imposed a new censorship system that ratcheted up restrictions, shared its title as the world’s worst environment for internet freedom for the first time in ten years with China.
