Internet freedom has declined significantly worldwide since 2017

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There has been a definite uptick in digital authoritarianism worldwide, according to Freedom House, which assessed 65 countries:

Chinese officials have held sessions on controlling information with 36 of the 65 countries assessed, and provided telecom and surveillance equipment to a number of foreign governments, Freedom House said.

…

The report found 17 governments approved or proposed laws restricting online media in the name of fighting “fake news,” while 18 countries increased surveillance or weakened encryption protection to more closely monitor their citizenry.

According to the researchers, internet freedom declined in 26 countries from June 2017 to May 2018. Gains were seen in 19 countries, most of them minor.Agence Presse France, “Chinese-style ‘digital authoritarianism’ grows globally: study” at France24

One cause cited by Freedom House researcher Adrian Shahbaz will sound rather familiar: “While deliberately falsified content is a genuine problem, some governments are increasingly using ‘fake news’ as a pretense to consolidate their control over information and suppress dissent.”

Here’s the Freedom House study, which notes that “In almost half of the countries where internet freedom declined, the reductions were related to elections.” Also:

Many governments are enforcing criminal penalties for the publication of what they deem false news. “A chilling snippet from mass surveillance in China” at Mind Matters

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See also: Is it too late to prevent being ruled by The Algorithm? Dilbert’s creator, Scott Adams, tells Ben Shapiro why he thinks politicians soon won’t matter

Should robots run for office? A tech analyst sees a threat to democracy if they don’t.

It’s a sobering thought, how far some tech analysts would be prepared to go in order to impose their own vision of order on an unruly but stable political system.

and

Life after Google: More private and more profitable? Reviewing Gilder’s Life after Google, Ralph Benko asks, If our attention is worth billions, shouldn’t we market it?

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