Freedom on the Net
2024
Acknowledgements
Freedom on the Net is a collaborative effort between Freedom House staff and a network of more than 95 independent researchers, who come from civil society organizations, academia, journalism, and other backgrounds, covering 72 countries.
Acknowledgements and Sources
Freedom on the Net is a collaborative effort between Freedom House staff and a network of more than 95 independent researchers, who come from civil society organizations, academia, journalism, and other backgrounds, covering 72 countries. In repressive environments, Freedom House takes care to ensure researchers’ anonymity and/or works with experts living abroad.
The Freedom on the Net team expresses their gratitude to the global internet freedom community, including the many individuals and organizations whose tireless and courageous work informs this report.
This report was made possible by the generous support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Dutch Postcode Lottery, Google, Internet Society, The New York Community Trust, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), and Verizon.
Freedom House is committed to editorial independence and is solely responsible for this report’s content.
Contributors
Freedom House staff
- Allie Funk, Research Director for Technology and Democracy
- Jennifer Brody, Deputy Director of Policy and Advocacy for Technology and Democracy
- Cathryn Grothe, Senior Research Analyst for Democracy Studies
- Kian Vesteinsson, Senior Research Analyst for Technology and Democracy
- Grant Baker, Research Analyst for Technology and Democracy
- Aashna Agarwal, Research Associate for Technology and Democracy
- Matthew Barak, Research Associate
- Mina Loldj, Research Associate, Free Them All: The Fred Hiatt Program to Free Political Prisoners
- Maddie Masinsin, Community Engagement Specialist for Technology and Democracy
- Elizabeth Sutterlin, Research Associate for Technology and Democracy
Amelia Larson, David Meijer, Shannon O’Toole, Tyler Roylance, and Lora Uhlig edited Freedom on the Net. Gerardo Berthin, Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, Annie Boyajian, Yana Gorokhovskaia, Nate Schenkkan, Adrian Shahbaz, Lara Shane, and Yaqiu Wang provided valuable feedback on the summary of findings. Clara Apt, Phumelele Mncina, César Augusto Portocarrero Rodríguez, Rachel Simroth, Nodari Tsaava, and Jessica White provided research assistance.
Report authors
- Argentina: Eduardo Ferreyra, independent researcher
- Armenia: Samvel Martirosyan, Co-Founder of CyberHUB
- Australia: Lizzie O'Shea and Samantha Floreani, Digital Rights Watch
- Azerbaijan: Arzu Geybulla, independent researcher
- Bangladesh: Rezwan I., independent researcher
- Brazil: Artur Pericles Lima Monteiro, Schmidt Visiting Scholar, Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs; Resident Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School; Affiliated Researcher, Constitution, Law & Politics Group, University of São Paulo
- Canada: Allen Mendelsohn, McGill University
- Chile: Danielle Zaror M., law professor at Universidad de Chile
- Colombia: Susana Echavarría Medina and Emmanuel Vargas Penagos, El Veinte
- Costa Rica: Óscar Mario Jiménez Alvarado, Fernando José Martínez de Lemos, Johanna Rodríguez López, Programa de Libertad de Expresión y Derecho a la Información (PROLEDI)
- Cuba: Ted A. Henken, Baruch College, City University of New York
- Ecuador: Emily Fonseca-Jácome and Margarita Yépez-Villareal, Fundación Datalat
- Estonia: Hille Hinsberg and Florian Marcus, Proud Engineers
- Ethiopia: Atnafu Brhane, independent researcher
- France: Audrey Cerrone, independent researcher
- Georgia: Teona Turashvili, Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI)
- Germany: Matthieu Binder and Raphael Hadadi, iRights.Lab
- Hungary: Dalma Dojcsák, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
- Iceland: Arnaldur Sigurðarson, independent researcher
- Indonesia: Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet)
- Iraq: Asia Abdulkareem Anwer and Hayder Hamzoz, INSM
- Italy: Philip Di Salvo and Antonella Napolitano, independent researchers
- Japan: Hamada Tadahisa, Japan Computer Access for Empowerment
- Kazakhstan: Adil Nurmakov, independent researcher
- Malawi: Jimmy Kainja, University of Malawi
- Malaysia: Siti Nurliza Samsudin and Kelly Koh, Sinar Project
- Mexico: Vladimir Cortés Roshdestvensky, independent researcher
- Myanmar: Oliver Spencer, independent researcher
- Nicaragua: IPANDETEC and Jenny Galindo, independent researcher
- Nigeria: Adeboro Odunlami, independent researcher
- Philippines: Vino Lucero, independent researcher
- Serbia: Mila Bajić and Bojan Perkov, SHARE Foundation
- Singapore: Kirsten Han, independent researcher
- South Africa: Tshepiso Hadebe, independent researcher
- South Korea: Yenn Lee, SOAS University of London
- Sudan: Digital Rights Lab
- Thailand: Emilie Palamy Pradichit and Ploypitcha Uerfuer, Manushya Foundation
- The Gambia: Nasiru Deen, independent researcher
- The Netherlands: Bits of Freedom
- Turkey: Gürkan Özturan, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom
- Uganda: Lillian Nalwoga, independent researcher
- Ukraine: Olga Kyryliuk, independent researcher
- United Kingdom: Dr. Edina Harbinja, Aston University
- United States: Rachel Lau, independent researcher
- Uzbekistan: Ernest Zhanaev, independent researcher
- Vietnam: Trịnh Hữu Long, Legal Initiatives for Vietnam
- Zambia: Bulanda T. Nkhowani, independent researcher
Researchers for Angola, Bahrain, Belarus, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Ghana, India, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe wished to remain anonymous.
Advisers
- Sarah Bauerle Danzman, independent researcher
- Mert Bayar, Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington
- Eto Buziashvili, Digital Forensic Research Lab, Atlantic Council
- Hakeem Dawd Qaradaghi, independent researcher
- Will Duffield, Adjunct Scholar, Cato Institute
- Alena Epifanova, Research Fellow at Center for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, German Council on Foreign Relations
- Marwa Fatafta, Middle East and North Africa Policy and Advocacy Director, Access Now
- Smitha Krishna Prasad, Fritz Fellow, Georgetown University Law Center
- J. Carlos Lara, independent researcher
- Miaan Group
- Matt Perault, Director, Center on Technology Policy, UNC-Chapel Hill
- Beatriz Saab, independent researcher
- Stephanie Sugars, Senior Reporter, U.S. Press Freedom Tracker,
- Danielle Tomson, Researcher Manager, Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington
- Qiang Xiao, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of China Digital Times and research scientist at the School of Information, University of California Berkeley
A Note on Additional Sources and Data
This report’s main essay, data points, and policy recommendations were informed by the individual Freedom on the Net country reports, written by the external report authors and reviewed by the external advisers who are listed above. In addition, Freedom House staff conducted desk research, held one-on-one interviews and group roundtables, and drew on the important work of various media groups, civil society organizations, and other experts. Freedom House extends appreciation to Jamil Assis, William Bird, Cloudflare, Eve Chiu, Renee DiResta, Dean Jackson, Billion Lee, Zoe Lee, the Open Observatory of Network Interference, Chris Roper, Yoel Roth, Vakau, Chihhao Yu, and others who prefer to remain anonymous. Freedom House also thanks the multistakeholder group of experts who attended a roundtable on internet freedom trends, including Matt Bailey, Jon Bateman, Patrick Day, Kat Duffy, Alyson K. Finley, Jared Ford, Josh A. Goldstein, Katie Harbath, Matt Perault, Jason Pielemeier, Lisa Poggiali, Alexandria Walden, Alex Warofka, and Moira Whelan.
Country-specific data and sources used in the report’s essay can be downloaded at freedomonthenet.org, and each country report and its relevant footnotes are available at https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-net/scores.
How to Cite this Report
Funk, Vesteinsson, Baker, Brody, Grothe, Agarwal, Barak, Loldj, Masinsin, Sutterlin eds. Freedom on the Net 2024, Freedom House, 2024, freedomonthenet.org.
Funk, Vesteinsson, and Baker, “The Struggle for Trust Online,” in Funk, Vesteinsson, Baker, Brody, Grothe, Agarwal, Barak, Loldj, Masinsin, Sutterlin eds. Freedom on the Net 2024, Freedom House, 2024, freedomonthenet.org.
“Angola,” in Funk, Vesteinsson, Baker, Brody, Grothe, Agarwal, Barak, Loldj, Masinsin, Sutterlin eds. Freedom on the Net 2024, Freedom House, 2024, freedomonthenet.org.
Explore the Report
Read the Report
Explore the latest edition of Freedom on the Net to learn how around the world, voters have been forced to make major decisions about their future while navigating a censored, distorted, and unreliable information space.
Key Internet Controls
To track the different ways in which governments seek to dominate the digital sphere, Freedom House monitors their application of nine Key Internet Controls. The resulting data reveal trends in the expansion and diversification of these constraints on internet freedom.
Policy Recommendations
Learn how governments and companies can protect internet freedom.
