Both released this week, the US State Department’s annual human rights report along with the Reporters Without Borders ‘Enemies of the Internet’ list, have concluded that governments around the world are increasingly limiting freedom of expression on the internet.

US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The former highlights the way the internet has “changed the way governments seek to control their citizens” as TG Daily puts it, with Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton noting that “New technologies have proven useful both to oppressors and to those who struggle to expose the failures and the cowardice of the oppressors”.

Unsurprisingly, China figures heavily in the US government-backed report, being listed as a serious offender in curbing online freedom. The report notes that China has “increased its efforts to monitor internet use, control content, restrict information, block access to foreign and domestic websites, encourage self-censorship, and punish those who violated regulations”.
Meanwhile, the Reporters Without Borders ‘Enemies of the Internet’ list of the worst violators of freedom of expression on the net notes that some of the countries on its lists “are determined to use any means necessary to prevent their citizens from having access to the Internet”. It then names Burma, North Korea, Cuba, and Turkmenistan as countries in which technical and financial obstacles are coupled with harsh crackdowns and the existence of a very limited Intranet.
“Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan have opted for such massive filtering that their internet users have chosen to practice self-censorship,” adds the Reporters Without Borders document. “For economic purposes, China, Egypt, Tunisia and Vietnam have wagered on a infrastructure development strategy while keeping a tight control over the Web’s political and social content .”