Freedom House Reports a Global Decline of Internet Freedom, Citing the Chinese Model

           For the eighth strait year around the world, freedom on the Internet has declined, as the Communist Chinese model has spread and authoritarian governments engage in censorship and even use the Internet to their own advantage, according to a report by Freedom House: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/freedom-net-2018.  

           Internet freedom declined in dozens of the 65 states that were analyzed.  Freedom has declined for twelve consecutive years, as I posted in January of this year in Freedom House Reports a Decline in Freedom for the Twelfth Strait Year; Russia, China and Donald Trump Are Cited https://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2018/01/freedom-house-reports-decline-of.html.  There is a general correspondence between the level of overall freedom in states and that of Internet freedom.  China requires Internet service providers, in exchange for market access, to censor and is providing the technology and training it uses to other authoritarian states.  The report observes the spread of propaganda and disinformation by illiberal regimes on the Internet.  Internet service providers attempt to eliminate “fake news (news that is totally fabricated),” but, following the example of Donald Trump, the pretender to the presidency of the United States, authoritarian regimes are using the term broadly to censor critical independent journalism and all dissent.

           The Internet was originally thought to be another tool of spreading information, which would undermine the monopoly of information held by illiberal regimes, and of allowing dissidents to communicate better.  Instead, it is being used as another tool of authoritarianism. 

           The report validates the necessity of Internet journalism, including blogging, as well as of human rights organizations and freedom of the press associations.  It also reminds of the need for a return to American global leadership for liberty and of the application of greater public pressure on Internet service providers not to be complicit with authoritarianism, but instead to insist upon Internet freedom.