Internet freedom declines in US, Germany: Study

WASHINGTON

Internet freedom declined in both the United States and Germany as Western democracies joined authoritarian states in imposing growing restrictions online, an annual survey by Freedom House said Thursday.

The Washington-based democracy promotion research group said global internet freedom fell for the 15th straight year, with declines in a number of countries that remain classified as "free."

"We find worsening repression in authoritarian and authoritarian-leaning states, largely because governments in those countries see restrictions on the internet and online expression as a means of maintaining power," said Kian Vesteinsson, the report's co-author.

"Much more specific to 2025, we've seen conditions in democracies declining," he told AFP.

"Unfortunately we see across North America and Western Europe generally a trend towards closing civic space in some countries, and in others deepening restrictions on people posting hateful or problematic content," he said.

The United States scored 73 on a scale of 100 on internet freedom in the year through May 2025 covered by the report, its lowest-ever figure and down three points from the previous year.

The report pointed in part to the detention by President Donald Trump's administration of a number of non-US citizens over their online expression.

Germany also saw a decline of three points to 74. Freedom House said that Germany was seeing growing self-censorship and also the zealous enforcement of laws that prohibit hate speech and defamation.

The most severe declines in the report were registered by Kenya, which briefly shut down the internet in response to nationwide protests, as well as Venezuela and Georgia.

Two countries were downgraded: Serbia was classified as "partly free" instead of "free" and Nicaragua was marked as "not free" instead of "partially free."