Global Internet Freedom Declines for 16th Straight Year, Freedom House Report Finds

Global internet freedom deteriorated for the 16th consecutive year as governments expanded access controls, age-verification rules, and restrictions linked to artificial intelligence, according to a report released on October 22, 2026, by the Washington, D.C.-based organization Freedom House.

The annual study, titled Freedom on the Net 2026: Seismic Shifts on the Global Internet, evaluated online conditions across 38 countries between June 2025 and May 2026. Freedom House found that conditions worsened in 16 countries and improved in only eight. Estonia was ranked as the world's freest online environment, while Bangladesh registered the largest improvement for the second year in a row, followed by the Gambia.

According to the report, Iran saw the steepest decline over the year, joining China and Myanmar as the environments with the most restricted internet freedom. Iranian authorities enacted a nationwide internet shutdown lasting roughly 88 days—the longest recorded in the report's history—while limiting global platform access to select groups. Jordan and Nigeria also recorded notable declines, and Georgia's status dropped from "Free" to "Partly Free" amid state actions against online activism and speech critical of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Freedom House highlighted several major drivers behind the global decline, including state efforts to isolate domestic populations from the broader internet, such as Russian restrictions on virtual private networks alongside state-approved services. The report also pointed to age-assurance policies as emerging barriers to access and privacy; as of June 2026, policymakers in 10 evaluated countries had introduced or enforced such measures, including social media bans for children under 16 in Australia and Indonesia, and a proposed digital identity system in Turkey.

Additionally, the report stated that while regulations targeting AI-generated content addressed issues like harassment and child protection, some governments used these laws to suppress legitimate online expression.

The United States' score remained unchanged during the assessment period. Freedom House noted that while the content-removal mechanisms of the TAKE IT DOWN Act took effect in May 2026 to combat online sexual abuse, issues regarding surveillance, penalties for speech, and safeguards against false reports persisted.

To counter these trends, Freedom House recommended funding for anticensorship mechanisms like the Open Technology Fund, increasing satellite connectivity, improving digital security resources for journalists and human rights defenders, and designing privacy-preserving protections for children online.

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