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The Struggle for Trust Online | Freedom House
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This Freedom House report documents global internet freedom trends including AI-generated disinformation, election manipulation, and government use of AI tools for censorship and surveillance — directly relevant to AI governance, deployment risks, and the societal impacts of AI-enabled information manipulation.
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Importance: 42/100organizational reportanalysis
Summary
Freedom House's 2024 Freedom on the Net report documents the 14th consecutive year of declining global internet freedom across 72 countries. It highlights how censorship, AI-enabled disinformation, and content manipulation were used to undermine elections, and examines government interventions — including generative AI regulations — with mixed human rights outcomes.
Key Points
- •Global internet freedom declined for the 14th consecutive year, with 27 of 72 countries showing deterioration in human rights protections online.
- •Voters in at least 25 of 41 countries holding elections faced censored information spaces; progovernment actors manipulated online content in at least 21.
- •Governments used generative AI in campaigning and disinformation; some countries passed new guidelines to limit AI use in elections.
- •Physical attacks or killings in retaliation for online activities reached a record high in at least 43 countries.
- •Transparency mechanisms on major social media platforms were reduced, hampering independent researchers studying election-related influence operations.
1 FactBase fact citing this source
| Entity | Property | Value | As Of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freedom House | publication | Freedom on the Net 2024 documented the 14th consecutive year of internet freedom decline globally | 2024 |
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The Struggle for Trust Online | Freedom House
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The Struggle for Trust Online
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Freedom on the Net
2024
The Struggle for Trust Online
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Around the world, voters have been forced to make major decisions about their future while navigating a censored, distorted, and unreliable information space.
Written by
Allie Funk
Kian Vesteinsson
Grant Baker
Key Findings
Global internet freedom declined for the 14th consecutive year. Protections for human rights online diminished in 27 of the 72 countries covered by Freedom on the Net (FOTN), with 18 earning improvements. Kyrgyzstan received this year’s sharpest downgrade, as President Sadyr Japarov intensified his efforts to silence digital media and suppress online organizing. China shared its designation as the world’s worst environment for internet freedom with Myanmar , where the military regime imposed a new censorship system that ratcheted up restrictions on virtual private networks (VPNs). At the other end of the spectrum, Iceland maintained its status as the freest online environment, and Zambia secured the largest score improvement. For the first time in 2024, FOTN assessed conditions in Chile and the Netherlands , both of which showcased strong safeguards for human rights online.
Free expression online was imperiled by severe prison terms and escalating violence. In three-quarters of the countries covered by FOTN, internet users faced arrest for nonviolent expression, at times leading to draconian prison sentences exceeding 10 years. People were physically attacked or killed in retaliation for their online activities in a record high of at least 43 countries. Internet shutdowns and reprisals for online speech created even more perilous environments for people affected by several major armed conflicts around the world.
Censorship and content manipulation were combined to sway elections, undermining voters’ ability to make informed decisions, fully participate in the electoral process, and have their voices heard. Voters in at least 25 of the 41 FOTN countries that held or prepared for nationwide elections during the coverage period contended with a censored information space. In many countries, technical censorship was used to constrain the opposition’s ability to reach voters, reduce access to reliable reporting, or quell concerns about voting irregularities. In at least 21 of the 41 countries, progovernment commentators manipulated online information, oft
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