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Nearly half of 65 countries examined have seen online freedom
weaken since June 2014, Freedom House said in an annual survey
released on Wednesday.
One of the steepest declines occurred in France, which passed a
law that many observers likened to the U.S. Patriot Act in the
wake of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks earlier this year,
according to the report.
Ukraine, mired in a territorial conflict with Russia, and Libya
also experienced sharp drops.
The report highlighted China as the country with the most severe
restrictions on Internet freedom, followed by Syria and Iran.
Sri Lanka and Zambia, both of which recently underwent changes
in government leadership, were credited with making the biggest
improvements in overall online freedom.
Overall, 14 countries adopted laws in the past year to expand
government surveillance, the report found.
Bucking that trend, the United States passed legislation in June
that effectively terminates the National Security Agency’s
controversial bulk collection of U.S. phone metadata, a program
exposed in 2013 by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The new law was an "incremental step" toward digital
surveillance reform, according to the report's authors.
The report also found that critical comments about government
authorities were most likely to prompt censorship, and that
private companies in 42 of the 65 countries were forced to
delete or restrict online content.
In addition, many governments took more aggressive stances
against encryption and online anonymity technologies this year.
(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Jeffrey Benkoe)
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