The 5 worst places to be an internet user in Southeast Asia
The power of the internet has been in the spotlight in the last few weeks thanks to the U.S. election – but while American netizens have to contend with fake news and annoying status updates, in many parts of the world just sharing an opinion can end in jail time (or worse). Freedom House, a U.S.-based NGO/research organization, released their annual Freedom of the Net report last week, and overall the results were not good. Internet freedom has declined around the world for the sixth year in a row thanks to censorship and government monitoring of messaging apps. While there are worse places to use the internet than Southeast Asia – such as blogging about religious freedom in Saudi Arabia or Bangladesh – the region is still struggling. The entire report spans a thousand pages, but here’s a breakdown of the five worst offenders in Southeast Asia. Please note that the 2016 report only reviewed 65 countries in the world and it did not include Myanmar so it is not included in this list. Myanmar is, however, included in the 2015 report.
