Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Britain 'has worse record on internet freedom than Philippines'

Alice Philipson | 20.10.2012 14:43 | Free Spaces | Repression | Social Struggles | World

Britain has a worse record on internet freedom than countries such as Estonia and the Philippines, a new report suggests.



The report by Washington-based NGO Freedom House places Britain only eighth when measuring digital freedoms such as access to the internet and online free expression laws.

The US came second, Germany third, while Estonia was found to have the greatest level of freedom on the internet. Unusually, the Eastern European country allows its citizens to vote online.

Compared to Estonia and the US, the UK performed badly in terms of restrictions on online activity, surveillance and privacy.

In June, Google revealed that the number of UK government requests for users' private data had increased by 25 per cent on the year.

Within the next few months, the Government will debate controversial surveillance proposals, which could see every Briton's online activity and mobile phone use recorded. The proposals, part of the Communications Data Bill, have been dubbed a "snooper's charter."

Britain was also found to have a greater number of instances of filtering and blocking of websites and other forms of censorship.

Overall, the report found that “restrictions on internet freedom in many countries have continued to grow, though the methods of control are slowly evolving and becoming less visible.”

Pro-government bloggers are regularly hired to spread the official line and spread false information about unfolding events in many countries, and content is often blocked and filtered, according to the organisation.

The report comes as an anti-Muslim video was posted on YouTube, sparking protests across the world and a debate about freedom of expression. Several countries blocked YouTube following the incident.

In 19 of the 47 countries highlighted, physical violence is used to punish people who have posted content online.

Related articles:


 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_North_Korea

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China

 http://technology.inquirer.net/19074/over-1-5m-are-cybercrime-victims-daily-worldwide-study


Alice Philipson

Comments

Hide the following comment

Negative positive.

20.10.2012 16:48

This isn't a good report. Google is not the arbiter of freedoms on the internet nor is Freedom House. Both of these US based organisations do more to breach our freedoms than any other organisation.

You won't see either of these organisations criticising Facebook for freely encouraging fascism and pro-US content on its website. None of these 'company's' speak out against the growing numbers of people that have been arrested and imprisoned on evidence that they themselves have supplied to prosecution authorities.

There are people in the UK who are currently serving prison sentences for things they have written on Facebook. That is wrong.

Google routinely acts as an electronic evidence gatherer for the US National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency. Google is part of the US's worldwide intelligence nexus.

It's like taking tips on humanitarianism from Ghengis Khan!

anonymous


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech