Published map of countries where authorities filter the Internet

    Oddly enough, neither Russia nor Belarus are among the 25 countries in the world where government agencies censor Internet traffic, that is, restrict their citizens' access to “harmful” content, whether it be pornography, gambling, or political dissent. There were no facts of political or social censorship in Russia and Belarus (unlike the United States and Europe, by the way), but Belarus nevertheless raises suspicion among Western experts. Suspicious countries on the map are marked in dark yellow.



    The list of countries where network content is filtered is compiled by experts from the OpenNet Initiative , which advocates freedom of information on the Web. Experts studied the situation in only 40 countries, so the real situation with censorship could be even worse. Most interestingly, filtering Internet traffic is not at all evidence of a "lack of democracy." For example, the United States itself does not carry out any political censorship, but it carries out the so-called social filtering.traffic, that is, restricting access to online casino sites. Many countries in Europe filter this or that content. South Korea blocks propaganda of the communist northern neighbor. Other countries often have “social” restrictions, such as access to pornographic, gay, and lesbian sites.

    The most stringent rules for political filtering of Internet content exist in China, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam. The most powerful social filtering is in Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the UAE and Yemen.

    On the map above is the situation of political censorship in our Internet region. On the map below is the level of social censorship.



    Optional:
    OpenNet Initiative CIS Report

    via USA Today

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