Freedom House: Uzbekistan is among countries with "no freedom of the Internet" access

The non-governmental organization Freedom House presented the report of the annual research “Freedom in the network”.

The “Freedom in the network” rating is based on a survey of experts in 65 countries across the world. 87% of all Internet users live in those countries.

The questionnaire consists of 21 main and about 100 sub-questions in three main categories: 

-problems with the Internet access (lack of necessary infrastructure, lack of funds, independence of regulators); 

-content of restrictions (blocking websites and content, censorship);

-violation of user rights (tracking online activities, spying on online posts).

Each question is estimated at a certain number of points. The less these points, the more independence of the Internet in a particular country (from 0 to 30 points - free Internet, 31–60 points - partially free, 61–100 - not free).

Uzbekistan scored 75 points. This is the worst indicator in the group “Eurasia”. Nevertheless, experts noted a little progress in the development of a global network in the country. Russia showed not much better result with its 67 points and was placed near Uzbekistan.

In terms of freedom on the Internet, Iceland and Estonia have become leaders. The top 10 also includes Canada, Germany, Australia, USA, UK, South Africa, Japan and Italy.

Thus, six countries of the top ten retained their level of freedom achieved last year. Two countries improved their results - Germany and the United Kingdom and other two - the United States and Japan – declined.

In general, the analysis of the level of freedom on the Internet in 65 countries of the world showed that in 26 countries the situation became worse than the last year and only in 19 got better.

According to the Freedom House, almost 3,7 billion people worldwide use Internet today.