A new study by Proxyrack analyzed theinternet access and any restrictions in various countries of the world: lItaly is in the top 10 of the freest ones. Although there is room for improvement (especially compared to the all-European podium), it seems that our country is one of the best places to be citizens of the web.
Italy is among the freest countries to access and use the internet
Proxyrack, a service to provide high-performance and fast proxies, allows different users to surf online and is therefore very interested in knowing which countries are the most free internet. An issue that cannot be underestimated especially at this time: access to the web allows citizens to exercise the properate rights. Accessing the correct information, contacting other people, and organizing by interest groups – these are all prerequisites for one active citizenship.
Analysts note a decline in online surfing freedoms around the world, something we can see in cinternational news more and more often. But which are the freest nations? And how can we understand it? Proxyrack has decided to analyze several parameters:
- Il number of people online per 100 thousand
- A score on the censorship
- One on freedom of navigation
- An analysis of the restrictions are internet
- One on those on social media
Comparing these results, he has drawn up a ranking that sees our country at sixth place, in the top 10 (out of twenty countries considered). It should be noted that this study cannot have an absolute value, but allows us to have a vision of the freedoms on the internet that we Italians have. And that unfortunately many others do not.
Italy among the most free countries on the Internet
In the first place for freedom on the web we find the United Kingdom, which has a score of 0.26 / 10. Follows the Germania (0.4) and the France (0.53), which closes the podium. The Japan remains not far behind with a score of 0.66. Follow the United Stateswhich at 1.19 are not far from Italy which is at 1.32.
But what are the factors that affect these results. In other words: what should we do to lower our score further and get closer to the UK.
The most obvious discriminant is undoubtedly the amount of people online. In fact, if almost all the British are on the internet (99,231 out of 100,000), in our country that value drops to 86,132 people every hundred thousand.
For the rest we are quite close. There are no real restrictions on access on social media, the score on censorship in general remains at 2 out of 11. And the score for Internet freedom is 76 out of 100 for Italy and 78 for the UK (which only in this category he is beaten by Germany with 79). So rather than improving freedoms once online, we should be working for guarantee even more people access to a fast and secure network.
Countries with more restrictions
The Chinese it is the country with the most internet restrictions ever (9.21 out of 10), although it is technologically very advanced. Indeed the number of online users is rather tall 71,534, much closer to the rear Bangladesh con 30.715. But the number of restrictions is enormous: the censorship worth 11 its 11 and the Internet freedom score is only 10 out of 100. The fact that Western social media is banned and that newspapers and political associations are heavily censored makes China the least free country on the internet.
In second placeIran (8,16), which has banned access to social media and vigorously censors online oppositions. But it has a high rate of internet users: 81,241 out of 100,000. And the protests in recent weeks seem to show that many of these are finding ways to organize themselves despite censorship.
The third country in terms of number of restrictions is very close to us: yes treats of Egypt (6.97). There are over 68,000 online users, but the jailing of activists and journalists, often due to news and reports published online, shows the strength of Egyptian censorship.
This lower half of the internet freedom chart shows Italy what it is MUST NOT do. Government censorship has an important specific weight in these countries. If to improve freedom on the web we must simplify online access, in order not to go down in the standings we have to preserve political and civil liberties that we have conquered over the years.