Internet freedom report says rights worsening in U.S., worldwide

Internet freedom in the United States worsened during the last year amid a similar trend witnessed on a worldwide scale, an international monitoring group wrote in its latest report.

Published Thursday by Freedom House, a nonprofit organization largely funded by the U.S. government, the annual scorecard said that global internet freedom declined for the eighth consecutive year as a result of factors both foreign and domestic.

Twenty-six of 65 countries ranked by the group saw their internet freedom score worsen between 2017 and 2018, including the U.S., compared to only 19 nations where improvements were reported.

Ranked on a scale from 0 (free) to 100 (not free), the U.S. saw its score change from 21 in 2017, to 22 in 2018, according to the group’s latest report, “Freedom on the Net 2018: The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism.”

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality protections, the passage of legislation targeting websites that promote illegal prostitution and the ongoing proliferation of disinformation on social media all played a part in slightly deteriorating the nation’s — and, in turn, the world’s — internet freedom score, the report’s authors wrote.

Established in 1941 and based in D.C., Freedom House is largely funded by the U.S. Department of State, and its report credits the support of donors including the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Google.

Michael J. Abramowitz, the organization’s president, cited further partnership between the U.S. government and Silicon Valley as a possible way to reverse the deterioration of global internet rights.

“The U.S. government and major U.S. tech companies need to take a more proactive role in preventing online manipulation and protecting users’ data,” he said in a statement. “The current weaknesses in the system have played into the hands of less democratic governments looking to increase their control of the internet.”

Countries included in the report were ranked by Freedom House in terms of obstacles to access, limits on content and violations of user rights. Iceland, Estonia and Canada were named the top three countries regarding internet freedom, with China, Iran and Ethiopia at the other end of the spectrum.