As you have experienced, the internet in the United States is easily accessible and unrestricted, a place of free speech and exploration, whether it's important, or stupid hashtags. It's not that way everywhere though, and according to the Freedom House, (A global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media) a map has been posted to present the internet across the globe.
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| This map is the latest update as of Oct. 3, 2013.
Freedom House comes out with a updated map once a year, and in the 2013 edition, it shows that a lot of censored, un-free internet is still out there. For a more detailed look at all of the countries, Freedom House has graphed each country's internet freedom from most free to least free.
Freedom House also indexes the little changes too. Another graph below demonstrates how each country's freedom has declined, and the US has taken a hit mainly due to the NSA, but still remain classified as "free."
The next time you're frustrated because your connection is out, or if its just slow, remember it could be way worse.
Resources:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/resources/FOTN%202013%20Summary%20of%20Findings.pdf
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/internet-censorship-what-does-it-look-like-around-the-world/2012/01/18/gIQAdvMq8P_blog.html
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THIS IS CRAZY! I'm so happy you posted this! I find myself yelling at my computer sometimes because it freezes or isn't going as fast as I think it should. But this really makes me think how awful it would be to have to partially pay or even pay completely to use the internet. What's even worse is the countries that are no data at all. This could be a good thing or bad thing for them. I feel like the internet has made people less intelligent, increasingly lazy, and consumed with social media. At least in places where you can't have internet or you have to pay for it your missing out of the negative effects of internet use. However the internet is a place for innovation and creation, I can't imagine not being able to pull my laptop out to check for the most recent news, stats on my favorite teams (Panthers, and OKC Thunder :P). I am so grateful to live in a country where internet use is free, as it should be! Thanks for this inspiring post, more people should view this because we see internet use as a right, when I believe it is a privilege.
ReplyDeleteI would love to know how the "partly" restricted places are conducted. What are the restrictions and how their government in Brazil or India handles this. Do they just have privacy settings across their country?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm also rather interested in how other countries with restricted access a work. Are they like china and only allowed to visit certain websites? Or only positive propaganda? I'm also rather curious as to why Iceland is the best out of all the countries, and how Estonia is in second place. Perhaps its because the us government monitors for possible terrorist attacks,or something similar I assume.
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