A total of 76 of the 81 countries surveyed were found not to meet best practice for the checks and balances on government surveillance of electronic communications. One-third of the countries block politically sensitive content.
The US dropped from second to fourth place on the list, while the UK hung onto its position of third place. Sweden was still in No. 1, with Norway coming in second. Russia and China scored poorly, coming in at 41 and 57, respectively.
While the US was the highest scorer on social, economic, political and environmental empowerment it didn’t score well on breadth of internet access, communications infrastructure and a lack of safeguards to protect users’ privacy.
Even Sweden’s record in web innovation could be at risk because of excessive state surveillance.
Amongst the emerging nations Mexico did the best, while the Philippines achieved the highest overall ranking from the developing nations.
The index found that a country’s wealth does not necessarily equal free and open access to the internet. Qatar, the world’s richest country, came in below Jamaica at 51, while Switzerland, the third-richest country in the world, was below Estonia.