Internet Freedom in the Middle East Remained Restricted in 2024

WASHINGTON-Internet freedom remained restricted across the Middle East over the past year, with one country recording net gains in digital freedom and one country experiencing declines, according to a new reportreleased today by Freedom House. Freedom House analyzed online rights in seven countries in the region.

The report, Freedom on the Net 2024: The Struggle for Trust Online, found that the Israel-Hamas war further emboldened authoritarian regimes to silence government critics, journalists, and ordinary citizens for expressing pro-Palestinian sentiment online. In Jordan, for example, authorities used the new 2023 Cybercrime Law, which imposes harsh criminal penalties for a range of prohibited online activities, to suppress mass protest movements. Despite the ongoing repression of digital rights in the region, where arrests for online activities occurred in every country under study, Iran recorded a marginal score improvement, as there were fewer instances of connectivity disruptions than in the previous year.

Other findings on the Middle East include:

• Internet users were physically attacked or killed in retaliation for their online speech and activism in six out of the seven countries under review in the region. In Iran, social media user Roya Heshmati said she had been lashed 74 times over a post she made in April 2023, in which she could be seen without a hijab.

• Political, social, or religious content was blocked in all seven countries surveyed. In Jordan, AlHudood, a popular satirical news site, was blocked due to an article that criticized the cost of a Jordanian royal family wedding.

• Highest and lowest scores: Lebanon earned the highest score in the region, with 50 points on the report's 100-point scale, and was rated Partly Free. Iran, with 12 points, remained the lowest-scoring country of those under review in the region, and was rated Not Free.

• Biggest decline: Iraq was the region's only country with a net score decline, falling 3 points to a new score of 40 as authorities blocked several independent websites and imposed long prison sentences on users for their online content.

Beyond the Middle East, Freedom on the Net 2024found that global internet freedom declined for the 14th consecutive year. Governments in at least 25 of the 72 countries under analysis cut off internet access, restricted access to social media platforms, or blocked websites hosting political, social, and religious speech during electoral periods, often with the intention of shaping the results. Governments also turned to arrests, violence, and other forms of repression to silence online speech outside of electoral periods. In at least 56 countries, internet users were arrested due to their political, social, or religious expression. People were physically attacked or killed in retaliation for their online activities in a record high of at least 43 countries. Some of the most serious abuses took place in the context of armed conflicts. Internet shutdowns amid such fighting plunged civilians into information vacuums, prevented journalists from reporting on the violence, and hampered the delivery of lifesaving aid.

Freedom on the Netis an annual study of human rights in the digital sphere. The project now assesses internet freedom in 72 countries, accounting for 87 percent of the world's internet users. This report, the 14th in its series, covered developments between June 2023 and May 2024. Chile and the Netherlands were assessed for the first time this year and serve as global models for internet freedom, with Chile's score (86) placing it third in a tie with Canada, and the Netherlands earning the sixth-highest score (83). More than 95 analysts and advisers contributed to this year's edition, using a standard methodology to determine each country's internet freedom score on a 100-point scale, with 21 separate indicators pertaining to obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights.

The seven countries studied as part of this region are: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.