“Silencing the Messenger: Communication Apps Under Pressure,” an annual report by Freedom on the Net, found that global internet freedom declined in 2016 and 67 percent of internet users live in countries where government criticism will lead to censorship. That percentage surprised me as an American citizen. If I am criticizing the government online, I do not fear for my safety or worry that I am going to get censored. In other countries that is not the case.
In a survey by the Pew Research Center titled “Global Support for Principle of Free Expression, but Opposition to Some Forms of Speech” Americans were the most supportive of free speech, press freedom, and internet freedom. 71 percent of those surveyed in the United States said that it is very important that people can say what they want without state/gov’t censorship. The percentages declined slightly when asked about government intervention in reporting the news and using the internet but overall were high.
In the same survey, Americans surveyed above the global median in support of freedom of expression.
Since 2013, the number of countries who have arrested people for social media usage has increased by 50 percent. In Saudi Arabia, individuals could get arrested for “spreading atheism” on social media.
While researching the different levels of internet censorship across the globe, I found that overall China has the highest levels of censorship. Freedom on the Net found that China scored the highest on the internet freedom scale, with a score of 88 out of 100 (0=free and 100=least free). The Washington Post’s article, “China’s scary lesson to the world: Censoring the Internet works” goes into detail in describing the ways the Chinese government has put up “the Great Firewall” in order to keep citizens unaware of most of the Western influences. What I found most interesting was that in China, Google is completely banned and has been since 2002. Through China’s heavily censored search engine, internet users are unable to find anything that has to do with Tiananmen Square or the famous “tank man” photograph. According to the Chinese government, it does not exist. The concept that entire pieces of a nation’s history can be forcefully erased by its own government is frightening.
This censorship in China effects businesses as well. The U.S. government listed China as a trade barrier in the 2016 U.S. Office of the Trade Representative Report.
All of these statistics opened my eyes on how far governments like China are willing to go in order to keep its citizens in the dark. The United States is a country built on freedom of expression separate from the government intervention, so it is still shocking that other governments hold so much power over something seemingly universal like the internet.
Kelly Kolff 