Internet freedom is weakening

The human rights organization Freedom House has published its annual Freedom Online report, which measures the level of online freedom in 65 countries.

"The Internet is becoming less and less free around the world, and online democracy is fading," the introduction to the study says.

The report, first published in 2011, examines Internet freedoms in 21 categories, divided into three categories: barriers to network access, content restrictions, and violations of user rights. The situation in each country is measured on a scale from 0 to 100 points, the lower the score, the more freedom. A score of 0 to 30 means relatively free to surf the Internet, and a score of 61 to 100 means the country is not doing well.

Traditionally, China is the worst performer. However, the level of online freedom has been declining worldwide for the eighth year in a row. It decreased in as many as 26 out of 65 countries - incl. in the United States, mainly because of the war against internet neutrality.

Poland was not included in the study.