A report released by Freedom House, the Washington DC-based prodemocracy organisation dedicated to the expansion of freedom around the world, reveals that suppression of mass protests, deepening censorship, and threats to free speech fueled the 15 consecutive years of decline in global internet freedom.
According to the report released on November 13, 2025, titled “Freedom on the Net 2025: An Uncertain Future for the Global Internet”, the internet is more controlled and manipulated today than ever before, and conditions for online rights have deteriorated in 27 countries, with only 17 countries experiencing improvements.
Ms Annie Boyajian, President of Freedom House, noted that, “Global internet freedom has declined for 15 consecutive years, as authoritarians have deepened surveillance and censorship in an effort to silence dissent. This trend is persistent but not irreversible. We continue to see bright spots around the world, and we are inspired by courageous human rights defenders who risk their lives by standing up for freedom in the face of intensifying repression. It is clear, however, that we have reached a critical moment, and that the deterioration won’t stop unless governments and the private sector do more to protect internet freedom.”
Key findings from the report show that global internet freedom declined for the 15th consecutive year with Kenya, Venezuela, and Georgia experiencing the year’s most severe declines. The report also found that control over online information became an essential tool for authoritarian leaders seeking to entrench their regimes, with governments in the countries that suffered the most extreme declines in internet freedom over the past 15 years including Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela, intensifying their control over the online environment in response to challenges to their rule.
Other key findings show that online spaces are more manipulated than ever, as authorities seek to promote favoured narratives and warp public discourse; and of the 18 free countries under the study, half suffered declines.
The report also found that internet freedom is entering a pivotal period, as developments, including a surge in government investment in artificial intelligence (AI), a boom in satellite-based internet connectivity, and increasing constraints on online anonymity, which the report says could drastically alter the digital landscape. It noted that these transformative processes, and the ways in which governments and companies navigate them, will have profound implications for ordinary people’s fundamental rights.
It made recommendations that policymakers, regulators, and technology companies can adopt to counter the major drivers of digital repression, including that: governments should maintain access to internet services and digital platforms, as imposing outright or arbitrary bans on social media and messaging platforms unduly restricts free expression; governments should encourage a whole-of-society approach to fostering a high-quality, diverse, and trustworthy information space, while companies should invest in staff who work on public policy, access to reliable information, trust and safety, and human rights, and consistently adopt processes to ensure that engagement with government officials regarding online content does not undermine free expression and other fundamental rights; and governments should ensure that surveillance programmes are grounded in human rights principles and work together to create interoperable privacy regimes that comprehensively safeguard peoples’ data, adding that laws should include guardrails that limit the ways in which private companies can use personal data for AI development and in their AI systems.
It also recommended that companies should mainstream end-to-end encryption in their products, support anonymity software, and uphold other robust security protocols, including by notifying victims of surveillance abuses and resisting government requests to provide special decryption access.
Download the Freedom on the Net 2025 here.
