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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2025
NEW REPORT: Persistent Authoritarian Repression and Backsliding in Democracies Drive 15th Consecutive Year of Decline in Global
Internet Freedom
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The future of internet freedom will depend on how governments regulate and deploy the next wave of artificial intelligence and other rapidly evolving technologies.
WASHINGTON—Suppression of mass protests, deepening censorship, and threats to free speech fueled the 15th consecutive year of decline in global internet freedom, according to a new report released today by Freedom House. The report, Freedom on the Net 2025: An Uncertain Future for the Global Internet
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, found that the internet is more controlled and manipulated today than ever before, with conditions for rights online deteriorating in 27 countries, while only 17 countries experienced improvements.
Global internet freedom has declined for 15 consecutive years, as authoritarians have deepened surveillance and censorship in an effort to silence dissent,” said Annie Boyajian, president of Freedom House. “This trend is persistent but not irreversible. We continue to see bright spots around the world, and we are inspired by courageous human rights defenders who risk their lives by standing up for freedom in the face of intensifying repression. It is clear, however, that we have reached a critical moment, and that the deterioration won’t stop unless governments and the private sector do more to protect internet freedom.”
In addition to the worsening repression in authoritarian states, the report revealed troubling developments in the world’s more open online environments: half of the 18 countries with an internet freedom status of Free suffered score declines during the coverage period, which extended from June 2024 to May 2025. Only two of the Free countries recorded improvements. Georgia, which lost 4 points on Freedom on the Net’s 100-point scale, experienced the most significant decline among these countries, followed by Germany (−3) and the United States (−3).
The report’s key findings include the following:
Global internet freedom declined for the 15th consecutive year. Kenya (−6), Venezuela (−4), and Georgia (−4) experienced the year’s most severe declines on the report’s 100-point scale. Bangladesh (+5) earned the year’s strongest improvement. China and Myanmar, each with a total score of 9, remained the world’s worst environments for internet freedom, while Iceland (94) held its place as the freest online environment, followed by Estonia (91). Falling scores for Serbia and Nicaragua resulted in status changes: Serbia was downgraded from Free to Partly Free, while Nicaragua dropped from Partly Free to Not Free.
Control over online information has become an essential tool for authoritarian leaders seeking to entrench their regimes. Governments in the countries that suffered the most extreme declines in internet freedom over the past 15 years—Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela—intensified their control over the online environment in response to challenges to their rule.
Online spaces are more manipulated than ever, as authorities seek to promote favored narratives and warp public discourse. Of the 21 indicators covered by Freedom on the Net, the one that assesses whether online sources of information are manipulated by the government or other powerful actors has undergone the most consistent global decline over the past 15 years.
Of the 18 Free countries under study, half suffered declines. In Germany, factors including criminal prosecutions for memes about politicians, increased self-censorship due in part to threats from far-right actors, and attacks by hackers with ties to the Russian state contributed to a 3-point drop in the country’s internet freedom score, for a new total of 74. In the United States, growing restrictions on civic space threatened to stifle digital activism, marked by the detention of foreign nationals for nonviolent online expression. These developments contributed to a decline of 3 points, which left the US score at 73.
The report also found that internet freedom is entering a pivotal period, as developments including a surge in government investment in artificial intelligence (AI), a boom in satellite-based internet connectivity, and increasing constraints on online anonymity could drastically alter the digital landscape. These transformative processes, and the ways in which governments and companies navigate them, will have profound implications for ordinary people’s fundamental rights.
“We are in a moment of great innovation, and the steps we take today will have a major impact on the future of human rights online,” said Kian Vesteinsson, Freedom on the Net report coauthor and Freedom House’s senior research analyst for technology and democracy. “As AI and other digital technologies make rapid advances, democratic societies should work to embed safeguards for free expression and privacy at the earliest possible stages of development. Such essential protections could help to halt and reverse the 15 years of decline in global internet freedom.”
The report identifies measures that policymakers, regulators, and technology companies can adopt to counter the major drivers of digital repression over the past 15 years. The recommendations include the following:
Counter restrictions on freedom of expression: Governments should maintain access to internet services and digital platforms, as imposing outright or arbitrary bans on social media and messaging platforms unduly restricts free expression. Legal frameworks that address online content should uphold internationally recognized human rights and adhere to the standards of legality, necessity, and proportionality.
Combat manipulation of the online environment: Governments should encourage a whole-of-society approach to fostering a high-quality, diverse, and trustworthy information space. Companies should invest in staff who work on public policy, access to reliable information, trust and safety, and human rights, and consistently adopt processes to ensure that engagement with government officials regarding online content does not undermine free expression and other fundamental rights. Across the board, support for independent media outlets and local civil society organizations that disseminate credible information is sorely needed.
Counter disproportionate government surveillance and restrictions on privacy: Governments should ensure that surveillance programs are grounded in human rights principles and work together to create interoperable privacy regimes that comprehensively safeguard peoples’ data. Laws should include guardrails that limit the ways in which private companies can use personal data for AI development and in their AI systems. Companies should mainstream end-to-end encryption in their products, support anonymity software, and uphold other robust security protocols, including by notifying victims of surveillance abuses and resisting government requests to provide special decryption access.
View the report’s complete recommendations here
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. Click here to read translated versions of this news release in Arabic
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, French
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, Chinese (traditional)
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Freedom on the Net is an annual study of human rights in the digital sphere. This report, the 15th in its series, covered developments between June 2024 and May 2025. The project now assesses internet freedom in 72 countries, accounting for 89 percent of the world’s internet users. The report uses a standard methodology to determine each country’s internet freedom score on a 100-point scale, with 21 separate indicators pertaining to obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights.
To schedule an interview with Freedom House experts, please contact Roza Melkumyan at
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Freedom House is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to create a world where all are free.
We inform the world about threats to freedom, mobilize global action, and support democracy’s defenders.
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