Freedom on the Net 2025 report: for the 15th consecutive year, global internet freedom is in decline; of the 72 countries assessed, Kenya fell the most
Freedom House - Explore the map of global freedom and internet freedom around the world. Anamarija Pogorelec / Help Net Security : The internet isn't free: Shutdowns, surveillance and algorithmic risks Freedom House : NEW REPORT: Persistent Authoritarian Repression and Backsliding in Democracies Drive 15th Consecutive Year of Decline in Global Internet Freedom X: @freedomhouse : Of the 72 countries covered by #FreedomOnTheNet, 27 saw their scores decline and just 17 registered gains. 🗺️Explore the map: https://freedomhouse.org/... [image] Bluesky: Justin Hendrix / @justinhendrix : According to the 2025 Freedom on the Net report, global internet freedom declined for the 15th consecutive year. Of 72 countries assessed, conditions deteriorated in 28, while 17 registered overall gains. The US was among the countries that experienced the most significant declines. Forums: Msmash / Slashdot : Global Web Freedoms Tumble
Context & Ripple Effects
Freedom House’s latest assessment extends a deterioration documented in its 2021 finding of an 11th consecutive annual decline and its 2019 report on expanding surveillance and disinformation risks. The new result makes the pattern longer-running rather than a one-year reversal.
The report arrives after monitoring groups recorded a record year for internet shutdowns in 2023, placing country-level score declines in a broader record of states restricting online access.
First-order effects
- Kenya records the steepest decline among the 72 assessed countries, while 27 countries deteriorate and only 17 improve in the 2025 assessment.
- The United States is among the countries with significant declines, widening the report’s focus beyond authoritarian governments to democratic backsliding.
Second-order effects
- A fifteenth consecutive global decline gives civil-society groups, researchers, and policymakers a longer comparable record for challenging restrictions on access, surveillance, and online expression.
- Repeated findings alongside documented shutdowns increase pressure on governments to account for internet restrictions and on platforms to operate amid more uneven national rights conditions.
Third-order effects
- If annual declines continue, internet governance is likely to become more fragmented: users’ access and ability to communicate online will depend increasingly on jurisdiction rather than the nominally global nature of platforms.
- The persistence of declines across democracies and authoritarian states suggests that restoring internet freedom will require more than addressing isolated shutdowns or single-country crises.
The trend: The report is another data point in the long-running fragmentation of the open internet as governments expand their capacity to constrain online access and expression.