Freedom on the Net 2025

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Freedom House·freedomhouse.org/country/united-states/freedom-net/2025

Credibility Rating

4/5

High(4)

High quality. Established institution or organization with editorial oversight and accountability.

Rating inherited from publication venue: Freedom House

Tangentially relevant to AI safety governance; useful for understanding the US regulatory and civil liberties environment affecting AI deployment, platform accountability, and digital rights frameworks that intersect with AI policy discussions.

Metadata

Importance: 28/100organizational reportreference

Summary

Freedom House's annual assessment of internet freedom in the United States, evaluating obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights. The report tracks trends in surveillance, censorship, platform accountability, and government interference with online expression. It provides a scored assessment relevant to understanding the regulatory and civil liberties environment shaping AI and technology governance.

Key Points

•Assesses US internet freedom across three dimensions: obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights.
•Tracks government surveillance practices, data privacy protections, and legal frameworks affecting online speech.
•Evaluates platform content moderation policies and their interaction with free expression norms.
•Relevant to understanding the broader digital rights and governance context in which AI deployment occurs.
•Provides a comparative baseline for assessing how US internet governance evolves year-over-year.

Cached Content Preview

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United States: Freedom on the Net 2025 Country Report | Freedom House 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 Skip to main content
 

 
 
 Accessibility
 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Freedom on the Net 2025 
 

 
 
 
 United States

 Free 
 
 
 73 
 100 
 
 

 
 
 A Obstacles to Access 
 
 20 
 25 
 
 
 
 B Limits on Content 
 
 28 
 35 
 
 
 
 C Violations of User Rights 
 
 25 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 Last Year's Score & Status 
 
 76 
 100 
 Free 
 
 
 
 Scores are based on a scale of 0 (least free) to 100 (most free). 
 See the methodology and report acknowledgements. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 header1 
 
 Key Developments, June 1, 2024 – May 31, 2025 

 

 
 The United States’ overall information landscape remained vibrant, diverse, and free, and the legal framework still provided some of the world’s strongest protections for free expression online. However, select aspects of internet freedom declined during the coverage period, as federal authorities exerted pressure on online speech and expanded digital surveillance following a change in government in January 2025. The government did not impose restrictions on internet connectivity, and the First Amendment of the federal constitution limited the government’s ability to restrict online content or block websites.

 
 The administration of President Donald Trump sought to remove two Democratic Party members from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in March 2025, leaving the five-seat regulatory panel with just three members from the Republican Party, to which the president belongs. The fired commissioners sued, arguing that the removals were illegal, though one of them ultimately resigned (A5). 1 

 Throughout 2025, the FTC and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) carried out investigations and enforcement actions that touched on forms of speech protected by the US Constitution’s First Amendment. For example, the FTC investigated several advertising and advocacy groups, including the Democrat-linked civil society organization Media Matters, over their efforts to convince advertisers to boycott social media platforms that allegedly failed to curb hateful content (A5). 2 

 In January 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a law that threatened the short-video platform TikTok with a ban unless it was divested by its China-based parent company ByteDance. 3 Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store removed access to TikTok and other ByteDance-owned applications for a brief period in compliance with the law. They reversed course after the Trump administration repeatedly extended its deadline for the divestment, enabling people in the United States to download the apps throughout the remainder of the coverage period (B2 and B3). 4 

 In June and July 2024, the Supreme Court issued limited rulin

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