Abstract
National borders are getting scarier, and blocking the flow of information. But which are the toughest in the globe?
China
China hit rock bottom in Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net report 2018, which called it “the worst abuser of internet freedom”. The country has also tries to export its surveillance technology to others. Bach Avezdjanov, programme officer at Columbia Global Freedom of Expression, said: “With the Chinese great firewall, it is effective because not as many people there speak English. Physical borders create barriers of language and culture and that gets ingrained unless people are exposed to something else. “With China, everyone says why don’t people use VPNs? The thing is, even people who have heard of them don’t really know how to set them up properly.” In spring 2019, the country began blocking all language versions of the Wikipedia site.
Eritrea
Eritrea has one of the world’s lowest internet penetration rates, just 1.3% of the country’s five million strong population. This is part of the government’s control of access to information. The country has repeatedly been ranked worst in the world for press freedom by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and there have been no independent sources of media within the country since a 2001 crackdown. Many people get their news about the country through the Eritrean Press page on Facebook, which is edited anonymously from Britain.
India
India leads the world when it comes to blocking the flow of information using internet shutdowns although it does have a vibrant media. According to advocacy group Access Now’s 2018 #Keepiton Report, India represented two thirds of all shutdowns recorded. Kashmir is the focus of the overwhelming majority of these shutdowns – representing more than half of those recorded since 2012, before being completed locked down this summer after Prime Minister Modi’s decision to take away its autonomous region status.
Iran
Protests in Iran in 2017 and 2018 saw a clampdown on social media and the internet by the government. In January 2017, administrators of groups of more than 5,000 people on the messaging app Telegram were forced to started registering with the authorities in Iran. A number of administrators were arrested ahead of elections in May 2017. Freedom House ranked the country second last, just ahead of China, in its 2018 Freedom on the Net report. Iran strictly controls journalists’ entry to the country.
Kazakhstan
Jillian York, director for international freedom of expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says Kazakhstan should be highlighted for its “extensive surveillance network”. Kazakhstan’s borders to the outside world have grown even tougher since Nursultan Nazarbayev took over after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. In 2018, internet users in the country began to notice that for a couple of hours each evening, websites such as Facebook and YouTube were difficult, or impossible, to reach. This throttling of the internet was in response to exiled opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov live-streaming his criticism of the government. Nazarbayev resigned in March 2019, but that has not stopped the shutdowns.
Mexico
“It is very difficult to get ideas out of Mexico,” said Bertin Leblanc, editor-in-chief of Reporters Without Borders. According to the International Federation of Journalists, 11 people in the media were killed in 2018 and this grim record looks set to be broken in 2019. On 11 June 2019, crime reporter Norma Sarabia was killed in Huimanguillo, the seventh journalist to be killed so far in 2019 and the 149th to die since 2000, according to the Mexican human rights commission. In this murderous climate, it is no surprise investigative journalism is under threat.
North Korea
The presence of Kim Jong-Un’s totalitarian state on this list is inevitable. It’s difficult for international visitors, especially journalists, to enter. The Korean Central News Agency is the only official source of news for the country’s media, and North Koreans who consume other media can be sent to concentration camps. Only senior officials and foreigners may access the internet. North Koreans can only access the strictly controlled Kwangmyong intranet. The Flash Drives for Freedom campaign smuggles information across the border on USB sticks, saying these had reached 1.3 million North Koreans by the end of 2018.
Pakistan
Coming second to India in terms of internet shutdowns is Pakistan, Access Now reported there were at least 12 shutdowns in 2018. There were also two shutdowns of the mobile phone and text message networks last year. The Open Observatory of Network Interference, which carries out real-time analysis of the internet to detect network anomalies and censorship, says that “multiple tests conducted in Pakistan show that ‘middle boxes’ (software which could potentially be used for censorship and/or traffic manipulation) [are] present in Pakistani networks”.
Russia
Russia continues to restrict information flowing in and out of the country. Avezdjanov at Columbia Global Freedom of Expression, said: “In Russia, a lot of censorship is trying to target messenging apps as this is where a lot of political discourse has moved to – away from websites.” In 2017, Russia banned virtual private networks, encrypted connections to the internet that can help people to access the internet freely. While the law does not seem to have been enforced widely, in early 2019 the federal censor, Roskomnadzor, stepped up action against VPNs by demanding that leading providers connected their servers to its network. The messaging app Telegram was blocked in April 2018 for failing to provide the security services with users’ encryption keys.
Yemen
Yemen is dangerous for journalists. Nine people working in the media died in 2018 and journalists are abducted or detained, never to be seen again. In 2015, journalist and human rights activist Abdel Karim al-Khaiwani was gunned down outside his house. Those responsible have never been found. The government is also fond of throttling the internet and shutting down social media networks. A RSF report said: “In all parts of the country, citizen-journalists are monitored and can be arrested for a single social network post.” Veteran Yemeni correspondent Laura Silvia Battaglia said: “Journalists are often stopped by militias at borders and everywhere, searched, and detained.”