— Oro

Washington, DC, April 18, 2011–Cyberattacks, politically motivated censorship, and government control over internet infrastructure are among the diverse and growing threats to internet freedom, according to Freedom on the Net 2011: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media, a new study released today by Freedom House.

These encroachments on internet freedom come at a time of explosive growth in the number of internet users worldwide, which has doubled over the past five years. Governments are responding to the increased influence of the new medium by seeking to control online activity, restricting the free flow of information, and otherwise infringing on the rights of users.

“These detailed findings clearly show that internet freedom cannot be taken for granted,” said David J. Kramer, executive director of Freedom House. “Nondemocratic regimes are devoting more attention and resources to censorship and other forms of interference with online expression.”

Freedom on the Net 2011, which identifies key trends in internet freedom in 37 countries, follows a pilot edition that was released in 2009. Freedom on the Net evaluates each country based on barriers to access, limitations on content, and violations of users’ rights.

The study found that Estonia had the greatest degree of internet freedom among the countries examined, while the United States ranked second. Iran received the lowest score in the analysis. Eleven other countries received a ranking of Not Free, including Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand. A total of 9 of the 15 countries in the original pilot study registered declines over the past two years. Conditions in at least half of the newly added countries similarly indicated a negative trajectory. Crackdowns on bloggers, increased censorship, and targeted cyberattacks often coincided with broader political turmoil, including controversial elections.

Countries at Risk: As part of its analysis, Freedom House identified a number of important countries that are seen as particularly vulnerable to deterioration in the coming 12 months: Jordan, Russia, Thailand, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.

Key Trends

* Explosion in social-media use met with censorship: In response to the growing popularity of internet-based applications like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, many governments have started targeting the new platforms as part of their censorship strategies. In 12 of the 37 countries examined, the authorities consistently or temporarily imposed total bans on these services or their equivalents.

* Bloggers and ordinary users face arrest: Bloggers, online journalists, and human rights activists, as well as ordinary people, increasingly face arrest and imprisonment for their online writings. In 23 of the 37 countries, including several democratic states, at least one blogger or internet user was detained because of online communications.

* Cyberattacks against regime critics intensifying: Governments and their sympathizers are increasingly using technical attacks to disrupt activists’ online networks, eavesdrop on their communications, and cripple their websites. Such attacks were reported in at least 12 of the 37 countries covered.

* Politically motivated censorship and content manipulation growing: A total of 15 of the 37 countries examined were found to engage in substantial online blocking of politically relevant content. In these countries, website blocks are not sporadic, but rather the result of an apparent national policy to restrict users’ access to information, including the websites of independent news outlets and human rights groups.

* Governments exploit centralized internet infrastructure to limit access: Centralized government control over a country’s connection to international internet traffic poses a significant threat to free online expression, particularly at times of political turmoil. In 12 of the 37 countries examined, the authorities used their control over infrastructure to limit widespread access to politically and socially controversial content, and in extreme cases, cut off access to the internet entirely.

“The ability to communicate political views, organize, debate, and have access to critical information is as important online as it is in the offline world,” said Sanja Kelly, managing editor of the report. “A more urgent response is needed to protect bloggers and other internet users from the sorts of restrictions that repressive governments have already imposed on traditional media,” Kelly added.

Other Important Country Findings:

* China: The Chinese government boasts the world’s most sophisticated system of internet controls, and its approach has become even more restrictive in recent years. Blocks on Facebook and Twitter have become permanent, while domestic alternatives to these applications have risen in popularity despite being forced to censor their users. The authorities imposed a months-long shutdown of internet access in the western region of Xinjiang during the report’s coverage period, and at least 70 people were in jail for internet-related reasons as of 2010.

* Iran: Since the protests that followed the flawed presidential election of June 12, 2009, the Iranian authorities have waged a fierce campaign against internet freedom, including deliberately slowing internet speeds at critical times and using hacking to disable opposition websites. An increasing number of bloggers have been threatened, arrested, tortured, or kept in solitary confinement, and at least one died in prison.

* Pakistan: In recent years—under both military rule and an ostensibly democratic civilian government—the authorities have adopted various measures to exert some control over the internet and the sharing of information online. In mid-2010, a new Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Evaluation of Websites was established to identify sites for blocking based on vaguely defined offenses against the state or religion.

* United States: Access to the internet in the United States remains open and free compared with the rest of the world. Users face very few restrictions on their ability to access and publish content online, and courts have consistently held that prohibitions against government regulation of speech apply to material published on the internet. However, the United States lags behind many major industrialized countries in terms of broadband penetration and connection speeds, and the government’s surveillance powers are cause for some concern.

The full report can be viewed here.

The overview essay and selected graphs can be viewed here.

Freedom House would like to acknowledge the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and Google for their generous support. Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization that supports democratic change, monitors the status of freedom around the world, and advocates for democracy and human rights. Join us on Facebook and Twitter and stay up to date with Freedom House’s latest news and events by signing up for our RSS feeds.

NOTE: You can download the Nigeria report here.

Considered the most critical of Nigeria’s elections, considering the critical – and powerful – role that the president plays in the republic, the presidential election of April 16 has received so much attention. Voter turn-out improved when compared to the April 9 National Assembly elections but, as the final figures from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will reveal, there is still a sense of voter apathy that needs to be addressed. Nigerians need to be commended, along with elected/appointed officials who were saddled with the task of delivering hitch-free elections, for participating and watching over their mandate. It was pleasing to hear about communities that literally rejected efforts that sought to compromise the process even at the polling unit level.

The mobile app, ReVoDa, has now been downloaded by over 7,700 people. Building on the reports received on April 9 for the National Assembly elections, this week saw 466 new incident reports from ReVoDa users across 35 of 37 states (including the capital, Abuja) – compared with 27 states (including Abuja) last week. Reports were sent from Abia, Abuja, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara states. New states that sent in reports for the presidential elections include Bauchi, Cross River, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Enugu, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Yobe and Taraba, while no incident report was received this week from Gombe (which had reports for the National Assembly elections) and Bayelsa. The following summary reveals the verdict of ReVoDa users on the presidential elections:

• Electoral Officials’ Arrival: There was visible improvement over the April 9 reports, with only 2 (or 0.42% of 480) reports that there were no INEC officials at polling unit (PU) 10/22/8/7 (Delta State) at 9:26am and PU 18/8/11/12 (Kaduna State) at 10:03am. 33 polling units (6.88%) reported that INEC officials arrived late while 445 (92.71%) citizen reports confirmed on time arrival of officials. With 480 reports, we received 38% more reports than last week’s 349. Late arrival of INEC officials was down to about 7% from 36% while on-time arrival went up from 64% to 92.71%.
• Materials’ Availability: 98.1% of the 367 ReVoDa users who sent in reports said they were sure that electoral materials were available ahead of the commencement of the voting process while 1.9% stated that electoral materials were insufficient. This shows an improvement over 79% of ReVoDa users who reported materials’ availability during the April 9 elections but the 2% who reported insufficient materials should not be ignored because it is the constitutional right of every citizen to vote on election days.
• Voting: 0.6% of ReVoDa reporters confirmed that voting had not started as at 1:30pm, compared to 1.3% from the April 9 election reports. Early arrival of (wo)men and materials must have contributed to this improvement, but the target should be 100% on-time arrival. Situations such as the delay that was experienced in Apapa (Lagos State) due to a protest over non-payment of allowances should be prevented. We also observed that some polling units also maintained more than 300 registered voters without the advised split into multiple voting centres.
• Vote Counting and Result Announcement: 54% of ReVoDa users (same percentage as the April 9 election reports) stayed back at their polling units to confirm that they all witnessed vote counting. 92.4% of these reports confirmed that vote counting was done in their presence, immediately after the final voter exercised their voting rights. Of the 51.28% of ReVoDa citizen reporters that stayed back to witness result counting by INEC officials, 92.46% confirmed that results were announced.
• Violence and Fraud: 2.15% of ReVoDa users reported incidents of violence in their polling units, up by 0.15% compared to the April 9 reports. Polling units in Lagos had the highest number of incident reports while ReVoDa users also reported violence incidents in polling units in Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Jigawa, Kebbi and Abuja. 2.36% reported suspected cases of fraud, down from April 9 reports’ 3.8%. Polling units from Lagos and Borno recorded more fraud reports but other states that had fraud reported from polling units include Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Kano, Rivers, Sokoto and Taraba.
• Police Behaviour: Of the 309 ReVoDa users who commented on the behaviour of police officers in their polling units, 97.1% said the police officers were helpful (up from 96.3% on April 9), 2.27% thought they were biased (up from 1.6%) and 0.32% said the police officers in their polling units were intimidating (down from 2.1%). Until security of life and property is addressed at the highest level, our democratic experience – and general livelihood – will be imperfect.

We commend INEC for an improved outing, especially with the early arrival of their officials, but will say once again: you have a chance to make April 26 much better, and to use the state elections that will hold between 2012 and 2014 as opportunities to improve on the conduct of general elections in Nigeria. There were still many voided votes and low turn-out in some states, hence we call on all stakeholders to work with INEC to perfect this aspect of Nigeria’s democratic experience.

At the Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria coalition, we look forward to the last set of elections that will hold on Tuesday, April 26, so that we can have a honest review of the impact of our work – and also plan for the journey ahead. We believe that the real work starts after the elections, when citizens will hold governments accountable to demand good governance and public accountability. Even though the Register | Select | Vote | Protect (RSVP) Campaign has become popular among the electorate in general, and ReVoDa continually enjoys patronage and mention, we realise that the work of change in Nigeria cannot be reduced to few weeks of elections. We also appreciate our partners, City FM 105.1 (radio) and NN24 (TV), who consistently monitor the ReVoDa platform to share available content with citizens who may not have access to the platform. The project website, www.revoda.org, remains available for anyone who wishes to follow reports, and all they have to do is to click on the View Reports button on the homepage.

We encourage Nigerians, once again, to check the results that they dutifully recorded and transmitted from their polling units, against INEC’s official breakdown of results in polling units, to confirm that their votes were accurately reflected. This is 2011, our votes will count!