Freedom House 2. Are there laws that assign criminal penalties or civil liability for online activities, particularly those that are protected under international human rights standards? (0–4 points) • • Do specific laws—including penal codes and those related to the media, defamation, cybercrime, cybersecurity, and terrorism—criminalize online expression and activities that are protected under international human rights standards (like journalism, discussion of human rights, educational materials, or political, social, cultural, religious, and artistic expression)? Are restrictions on online activities defined by law, narrowly circumscribed, and both necessary and proportionate to address a legitimate aim? 3. Are individuals penalized for online activities, particularly those that are protected under international human rights standards? (0–6 points) • • Are writers, commentators, journalists, bloggers, or social media users subject to civil liability, imprisonment, arbitrary detention, police raids, the stripping of citizenship, or other legal sanction for publishing, sharing, or accessing material on the internet in contravention of international human rights standards? Are penalties for defamation; spreading false information or “fake news”; offenses related to cybersecurity, national security, terrorism, and extremism; blasphemy; insulting state institutions and officials; or harming foreign relations applied unnecessarily and disproportionately? 4. Does the government place restrictions on anonymous online communication or encryption? (0–4 points) • • • • • Are website owners, bloggers, or users in general required to register with the government? Does the government require that individuals use their real names or register with the authorities when purchasing electronic devices, such as mobile phones? Do specific laws or binding legal decisions require digital platforms or other intermediaries to identify or verify users’ real names, including by requiring them to provide a government-issued identity document? Are individuals prohibited from using encryption services, circumvention tools, or other tools to protect their communications or to facilitate private web browsing? Do specific laws or binding legal decisions undermine strong encryption protocols, such as mandates for client-side scanning, traceability, or real-time monitoring? 5. Does state surveillance of internet activities infringe on individuals’ right to privacy? (0–6 points) • • • • • • • • • Do the constitution, specific laws, or binding legal decisions protect against government intrusion into private lives? Do state actors comply with these laws or legal decisions, and are they held accountable, including by an independent judiciary or other forms of public oversight, when they do not? Do state authorities engage in the blanket collection of communications metadata and/or content transmitted within the country? Are there legal guidelines and independent oversight on the collection, retention, and inspection of surveillance data by state security and law enforcement agencies, and if so, do those guidelines adhere to international human rights standards regarding transparency, necessity, and proportionality? Do state authorities monitor publicly available information posted online (including on websites, blogs, social media, and other digital platforms), particularly for the purpose of deterring activities protected under international human rights standards such as independent journalism, community building and organizing, and political, social, cultural, religious, and artistic expression? Do authorities have the technical capacity to regularly monitor or intercept the content of private communications such as email and other private messages, including through spyware and extraction technology? Do state actors use AI tools for the purposes of online surveillance, without appropriate oversight? Do state actors manually search people’s electronic devices, including while they are in detention, for the purposes of ascertaining their online activities or accessing their personal data without appropriate oversight? Do government surveillance measures target or disproportionately affect dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, or certain ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT+, migrant, diaspora, and other relevant groups? freedomhouse.org 31