Freedom House of political turmoil such as protests and elections. In India, internet access was cut off repeatedly throughout January and February 2021 as farmers took to the streets to express their opposition to agricultural reform bills. One shutdown in Delhi affected more than 50 million mobile subscribers. The Indian government also ordered the blocking of hundreds of mobile apps owned by China-based companies amid military clashes along the Indian-Chinese border, illustrating how geopolitical tensions can erode free expression and access to information. In Ethiopia, authorities shut off the internet nationwide for at least 15 days in July 2020 following the assassination of popular ethnic Oromo singer Hachalu Hundessa and associated protests. The Ethiopian government also restricted connectivity in the Tigray Region in November 2020 as a conflict erupted between the federal government and Tigrayan forces. The shutdown continued during 2021, narrowing the flow of information in and out of the conflict area and limiting investigations into alleged atrocities perpetrated by government forces and their allies. Spyware continues to proliferate A booming commercial market for surveillance technology has given governments more capacity than ever before to flout the rule of law and monitor private communications at their discretion. Authorities in at least 45 of the 70 countries covered by Freedom on the Net are suspected of having access to sophisticated spyware or data-extraction technology supplied by secretive companies like NSO Group, Cellebrite, Circles, and FinFisher. Limited regulation of the sale and purchase of these tools, coupled with their near ubiquity and low cost in practice, has created a crisis for human rights. Citizen Lab and Amnesty International uncovered two separate spyware campaigns targeting Indian activist Anand Teltumbde. He was subsequently arrested in April 2020, with the case reportedly relying heavily on information pulled from his electronic devices. In July 2021, Moroccan journalist Omar Radi, who had been repeatedly targeted with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware in recent years, was sentenced to six years in prison for sexual assault charges that rights groups including Freedom House have criticized as politically motivated. And an onslaught of misogynistic harassment directed at Lebanese journalist Ghada Oueiss included a personal photo that was apparently stolen from her phone using spyware. @freedomhouse The ongoing criminal case against French surveillance companies Amesys and Nexa Technologies shows that some form of accountability is possible for the abuses emanating from the private surveillance market. In June 2021, four executives from the companies were indicted for complicity in torture and enforced disappearances after spyware sold to Libyan and Egyptian authorities was used to identify and track down perceived political opponents. A booming commercial market for surveillance has given governments more capacity than ever before to flout the rule of law and monitor private communications at their discretion. The long haul of COVID-19 Throughout the coverage period, governments continued to cite the COVID-19 pandemic to justify the suppression of critical speech and the censorship of unfavorable news. In March 2021, the Cambodian government criminalized “intentionally obstructing” the implementation of COVID19 measures, with penalties of up to five years in prison and steep fines. Subsequently, several individuals, including a member of the country’s banned opposition party, were arrested for social media posts that criticized a vaccine created by a Chinese state-owned company. In July 2020, security officials in Kyrgyzstan interrogated a Facebook user for allegedly inciting hatred through his criticism of the government’s COVID-19 strategy and then president Sooronbay Jeenbekov. Smartphone apps for contact tracing, vaccine management, and quarantine compliance also continued to be deployed with few safeguards against abuse, and revelations from the coverage period clarified the ease with which public health data could be accessed for other purposes. In January 2021, the Singaporean government confirmed that data collected from the country’s TraceTogether app were obtained by law enforcement bodies, spurring a public outcry that led to legal changes granting access to the data only for investigations of certain crimes. Australia’s InspectorGeneral of Intelligence and Security reported in November freedomhouse.org 9