FREEDOM ON THE NET 2021 The Global Drive to Control Big Tech SNOOPING FOR SALE A booming surveillance industry has allowed governments to flout the rule of law and monitor private communications at their discretion. Mexico India Since signing a $32 million contract with Israel-based NSO Group in 2014, the Mexican government has become one of the world’s worst abusers of Pegasus spyware. Commercial spyware systems like NetWire and Pegasus have been deployed against activists, journalists, and opposition figures. Nigeria In 2019, Nigerian security forces used commercial extraction tools to identify the sources of journalists reporting on military operations. Authorities in at least 45 countries are suspected to have access to targeted spyware and extraction technology purchased from private companies. Myanmar Pegasus spyware compromised the phones of two investigative journalists who reported on corruption and the Hungarian government’s relations with foreign states. The military likely used extraction technology purchased from Israeli, US, and Swedish companies to access data from the devices of people protesting the February 2021 coup. In a welcome development, a small number of governments rolled back problematic pandemic-related states of emergency that had unduly restricted free expression, while others ended overly broad data-sharing programs. In June 2020, an Argentine municipal government repealed an ordinance that fined users for sharing false information @freedomonthenet The Moroccan government is suspected of purchasing intrusive spyware from multiple companies, including Germany’s FinFisher and Israel’s Circles and NSO Group. Hungary 2020 that intelligence agencies had incidentally collected data from the country’s COVIDSafe app. 10 Morocco about COVID-19 after the law was enforced against journalists. Upon renewing its COVID-19 emergency powers in September 2020, the government of the Philippines omitted previous provisions that had criminalized online speech. And Armenia’s government ceased its collection of metadata, including location and phone-record data, from telecommunications companies for ostensible contacttracing purposes; the hardware devices that stored the information were then physically destroyed. #FreedomOnTheNet