Freedom House Elections as a flashpoint for digital repression site and detained its director over reporting that criticized the government. Ahead of and during electoral periods, many incumbent leaders criminalized broad categories of speech, blocked access to independent news sites, and imposed other controls over the flow of information to sway balloting in their favor. In the lead-up to July 2023 elections in Cambodia, through which longtime prime minister Hun Sen engineered a transfer of power to his son, authorities blocked access to the news outlets Radio Free Asia, Voice of Democracy, and Cambodia Daily, further cementing the regime’s control over the online media landscape. The Turkish government, led for 20 years by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), enacted a repressive law on disinformation and then wielded it against journalists and a member of the opposition ahead of May 2023 general elections. In November 2022, as Tunisian president Kaïs Saïed prepared to hold the first elections under a new constitution that greatly expanded his own power, authorities threatened an independent news Newly elected leaders also sought to reshape the online environment to their benefit. The Philippines suffered this year’s second-largest decline in internet freedom. After winning office in last year’s election, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of a Cold War–era dictator, signed a law in October 2022 that required all Filipinos to register their SIM cards under their real name, undermining anonymous communication in what remains a dangerous environment for journalists and activists. Marcos also left in place a blocking order that restricted 27 websites, including several news outlets known for critical reporting; it had first been imposed by outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte in June 2022, under an antiterrorism law that has been a frequent tool of government overreach. Despite being one of the best performers in Freedom on the Net, Costa Rica experienced a recession in internet freedom under the new administration of President Rodrigo AN ARSENAL OF TACTICS FOR DIGITAL ELECTION INTERFERENCE An Arsenal of Tactics for Digital Election Interference Ahead of and during electoral periods, many political leaders increased their leaders controlincreased over thetheir information space in a bid to Ahead of and during electoral periods, many political sway balloting in their favor. control over the information space in a bid to sway balloting in their favor. APPEASEMENT Ahead of Cambodia’s July 2023 elections, authorities blocked access to the websites of independent news outlets as part of a broader effort to control the online media landscape. DISIN CAMFORM PA A IG T N E SIT EB CKS W LO B TECHNICAL ATTACKS CED CONT FOR EMOVA ENT L R N IO S Turkish authorities ordered news outlets to remove unfavorable articles about a political party after it announced support for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the May 2023 election. Meta and X were also ordered to restrict election-related posts. Ahead of Thailand’s May 2023 elections, efforts to discredit opposition parties on social media were linked to the military, which employs thousands of people to manipulate online narratives. Independent media outlets in Kazakhstan faced a string of severe cyberattacks ahead of the November 2022 presidential election, disrupting access to information about the balloting. NE Before Zimbabwe’s general elections in August 2023, a new law known as the “Patriotic Bill” broadly criminalized speech that injures the country’s sovereignty or national interests. O S F EC ST S P E E R AR NE I O NL R H W R LA EPR WS E S S I VE During Cuba’s one-party parliamentary elections in March 2023, a journalist for the news site CubaNet was forced to stay home and threatened with arrest by a state security officer, in an apparent effort to limit his reporting on the vote. This infographic is from the Freedom on the Net 2023 report, as seen on www.freedomhouse.org. @freedomhouse freedomhouse.org 5