FREEDOM ON
THE NET 2023
The Repressive Power
of Artificial Intelligence
The September 2022 death of Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody sparked protests across Iran. Pictured is a flyer posted in Canada drawing attention
to Iranian authorities’ repression. (Katherine Cheng/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire)
cases forcibly disappear them. In the most egregious case
from the coverage period, the military executed prominent
activist Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy, in July 2022,
after arresting him for prodemocracy social media posts.
Officials also forced the sale of the last internet service
provider in Myanmar that had a degree of independence to a
This is the 13th edition of Freedom on the Net,
an annual study of human rights online. The
project assesses internet freedom in 70 countries,
accounting for 88 percent of the world’s internet
users. This report covers developments between
June 2022 and May 2023. More than 85 analysts
and advisers contributed to this year’s edition,
using a standard methodology to determine each
country’s internet freedom score on a 100-point
scale, with 21 separate indicators pertaining
to obstacles to access, limits on content, and
violations of user rights. The Freedom on the Net
website features in-depth reports and data on each
country’s conditions.
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@freedomonthenet
state-linked company in September 2022, clearing the way for
implementation of the regime’s censorship without resistance
from the private sector.
In a record 55 countries this year, people faced legal
repercussions for expressing themselves online. The number
of countries in which authorities carry out widespread arrests
and impose multiyear prison terms for online activity has
sharply increased over the past decade, from 18 in 2014 to 31
in 2023. Belarus received the year’s third-largest score decline,
alongside Costa Rica and Nicaragua. A Belarusian court
sentenced Maryna Zolatava and Liudmila Chekina—the editor
in chief and director general, respectively, of TUT.by, Belarus’s
largest independent media outlet—to 12 years in prison
for their reporting. In several cases in Nicaragua, President
Daniel Ortega’s government forced people who had been
incarcerated in part for their critical speech online to choose
between staying in prison and being sent into exile without
their citizenship. Roman Catholic bishop Rolando José
Álvarez Lagos, who had his citizenship revoked but refused
to leave Nicaragua, received a 26-year prison sentence for
broadcasting prayers on social media about authorities’
crackdown on Catholic clergy, among other offenses.
#FreedomOnTheNet