China worst in the world for internet freedom, India improves ranking: survey

Global online freedom has declined for a fifth consecutive year as more governments stepped up electronic surveillance and clamped down on dissidents using blogs or social media, a survey has recently.

The annual report by non-government watchdog Freedom House stated that the setbacks were especially noticeable in the Middle East, reversing gains seen after the Arab Spring.

Freedom House found declines in online freedom of expression in 32 of the 65 countries assessed since June 2014, with notable declines in Libya, France and Ukraine.

Also read: Internet freedom improves in India for the second consecutive year: Report

The researchers found 61 percent of the world's population lives in countries where criticism of the government, military or ruling family has been subject to censorship.

And 58 percent live in countries where bloggers or others were jailed for sharing content online on political, social and religious issues, according to the "Freedom on the Net 2015" report.

In a new trend, many governments seeking to censor content from opponents have shifted their efforts to targeting online platforms, pressuring services like Google, Facebook and Twitter to remove content, the report said.

Freedom House

"Governments are increasingly pressuring individuals and the private sector to take down or delete offending content, as opposed to relying on blocking and filtering," said Sanja Kelly, Freedom House's project director.

"They know that average users have become more technologically savvy and are often able to circumvent state-imposed blocks."

Freedom House said governments in 14 of the 65 countries passed laws over the past year to step up electronic surveillance.

With agency inputs