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Almost 60 percent of the world's population (4,66 billion people) use the Internet. It's our source for instant information, entertainment, news and social interactions. The Comparitech platform answers the question of what global internet censorship will look like in 2021 with a global map of internet restrictions.
In this exploratory study, researchers compared countries to see which countries impose the toughest internet restrictions and where citizens enjoy the most online freedom. These include restrictions or bans on torrenting, pornography, social media, and VPNs, as well as restrictions or strong censorship from political media.
online censorship
The worst countries for internet censorship are North Korea and China, ahead of Iran, Belarus, Qatar, Syria, Thailand, Turkmenistan and the UAE.
Greece: tough measures
Three countries have tightened their regulations compared to the previous year. In addition to Thailand and Guinea, especially Greece, according to the report: “This is due to increased measures against torrenting and restrictions on political media. Reporters Without Borders reported that freedom of the press was curtailed in 2020.
Media critical of the government were left out or received disproportionately small tax breaks. Public TV channels have been ordered not to air a video showing the Prime Minister flouting lockdown rules in February 2021. Reporting on the refugee crisis has been severely curtailed. Journalists are said to have been obstructed by the police at a memorial event. A renowned Greek crime journalist, Giorgos Karaivaz, was also murdered in April 2021.”
Restrictions in Europe
Away from torrents, the Europe report shows that “Political media will be restricted in XNUMX countries. As we have already seen, Greece has been included in this list this year, along with Hungary and Kosovo. Two countries heavily censor political media - Belarus and Turkey.
No European country blocks or bans social media, but five restrict it. These are Belarus, Montenegro, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine. Turkey restricts the use of VPNs, while Belarus bans them outright.
Messaging and VoIP apps are fully available across Europe.”
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