But where in the world can citizens enjoy equal and open internet access – if anywhere?
In this exploratory study, researchers have conducted a country-by-country comparison to see which countries impose the harshest internet restrictions and where citizens can enjoy the most online freedom. This includes restrictions or bans for torrenting, pornography, social media, and VPNs, and restrictions or heavy censorship of political media.
Although the usual culprits take the top spots, a few seemingly free countries rank surprisingly high. With ongoing restrictions and pending laws, our online freedom is at more risk than ever.
According to the research, the worst countries for Internet censorship are North Korea, China, Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran.
Researchers evaluated either there are torrents restriction, bans or shutdowns, pornography restrictions or bans, political media restrictions or heavy censorship of it, social media restrictions or bans, VPNs restrictions or bans. For each restriction or ban a country got 1 point.
For example, Northe Korea scored 10 while China 8, Russia 7. Meanwhile, Lithuania got 1 score for torrents restriction.
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