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A new report from Freedom House states that internet freedom is declining throughout the world. Hong Kong is one place where protesters have been able to connect and communicate using the internet and social media.
Online freedom declining worldwide, U.S. included, democracy watchdog says
Nov 05 2019
The internet and social media, often engines of democracy movements fighting powerful governments, are now more often being used as weapons against democracy and freedom.
That is the depressing conclusion of Freedom House's annual assessment, released Tuesday, which reported a ninth consecutive decline in internet freedom across the globe — including in the United States, where its very high marks nonetheless slipped for the third straight year.
While this country remains a beacon of internet freedom, Freedom House said, it was troubled by the expanded surveillance of the public by law enforcement and immigration agencies using social media and the internet. And it noted how disinformation campaigns continued to surround major political events of the past year such as the Senate confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh of the Supreme Court.
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In addition, the United States was one of 26 countries where internal sources used the internet to publish and disseminate false or misleading information during elections in the past year. Only four countries conducted elections during that period without any such interference.<br>
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Mike Abramowitz, president of Freedom House, an independent watchdog organization that promotes freedom and democracy, tried during a media call to highlight bright spots around the world, including the use of social media to sustain and magnify this year's protests in Hong Kong.
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But the report, by Adrian Shahbaz and Allie Funk, pulls no punches in stating that repressive regimes have converted internet tools "into instruments for political distortion and societal control."
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Among the major trends this year are:
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<li>Political leaders using the internet to secretly shape opinion, something happening in 38 of 65 countries that were surveyed. That is a new high.</li>
<li>Countries using the internet and social media to meddle in the political workings of other countries. China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and others have joined Russia in these efforts, the report states.</li>
<li>Mass surveillance being conducted via the internet and being used to silence opposing voices in some cases. A record 47 of the 65 countries assessed featured arrests of users for political, social or religious speech.</li>
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Thirty-three of the 65 countries Freedom House studies registered overall declines in internet freedom since June 2018. Sudan, Brazil and Bangladesh were among those with the biggest drops.
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China earned the ignominious title of the world's worst abuser of internet freedom — for the fourth year in a row.
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Sixteen countries earned improvements in their scores. Ethiopia, where the new prime minister has loosened restrictions on the internet, saw the biggest positive jump.
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"The future of internet freedom rests on our ability to fix social media," Shahbaz, the report's primary author, concluded. "Since these are mainly American platforms, the United States must be a leader in promoting transparency and accountability in the digital age."
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The watchdog group, which gets most of its funding from the federal government, is best known for the annual report it's been issuing since 1973 assessing the state of freedom around the world. The United States dropped to 52nd on the roster of 87 countries categorized as free in the <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/freedom-house" target="_blank">rankings issued in February</a>, because a recent "decline in the rule of law" put American democracy "on a level with Greece, Croatia, and Mongolia" and well below such democracies as Germany and Britain.
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Balance of Power
Global watchdog blames Trump for declining U.S. democracy
Feb 05 2019
American democratic norms are facing an attack unprecedented in modern times as a result of President Trump's actions, the global democracy watchdog Freedom House says in its annual assessment of freedom around the world.
The group's president, Michael Abramowitz, uses the report to accuse Trump of undermining such pillars of American democracy as the separation of powers, a free press, an independent judiciary and the legitimacy of elections.
<p>While American democratic values were undermined by President Obama's prosecution of media leaks and President George W. Bush's warrantless collections of telephone records, "there remains little question that President Trump exerts an influence on American politics that is straining our core values and testing the stability of our constitutional system," he wrote. "No president in living memory has shown less respect for its tenets, norms and principles."</p><p>Freedom House gets most of its budget from the federal government and since 1973 has been issuing its widely respected ratings of countries as "free," "partly free" or "not free" – based on scores in two dozen categories ranging from press freedoms to fair elections, political pluralism to civil liberties. The new report, out Monday, ranks the United Sates No. 52 on the roster of 87 countries categorized as free. (At the end of the last decade it was No. 31.) The 2019 report says recent "decline in the rule of law" put American democracy "on a level with Greece, Croatia, and Mongolia," and well below such democracies as Germany and Britain.</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Last month <a href="https://mailchi.mp/f7549394f3d0/stresses-to-us-democracy-alarm-global-corruption-watchdog?e=%5BUNIQID%5D" target="_blank">another watchdog group</a>, Transparency International, said that threats to the American system of checks and balances had dropped the United States out of the top 20 "cleanest" countries on its annual Corruption Perceptions Index.</p><p>"The reality is that other countries pay close attention to the conduct of the world's oldest functioning democracy. The continuing deterioration of U.S. norms will hasten the ongoing decline in global democracy. Indeed, it has already done so," Abramowitz wrote in a rare signed essay, included in the report, about the particular challenges to American democracy.</p><p>"We cannot take for granted that institutional bulwarks against abuse of power will retain their strength, or that our democracy will endure perpetually," he concluded. "Rarely has the need to defend its rules and norms been more urgent. Congress must perform more scrupulous oversight of the administration than it has to date. The courts must continue to resist pressures on their independence. The media must maintain their vigorous reporting even as they defend their constitutional prerogatives. And citizens, including Americans who are typically reluctant to engage in the public square, must be alert to new infringements on their rights and the rule of law."</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p>
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