WASHINGTON, DC — The Freedom House has ranked Armenia as a “free” country in its annual Freedom on the Net 2024: The Struggle for Trust Online report.
Armenia’s neighbor Georgia is also ranked a “free” country, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran are “not free.”
According to the report, Armenia’s online environment remains open, improving during the coverage period because the government did not block websites or social media platforms. However, the government did detain people over online speech critical of the government, and individuals in the country have frequently been targeted with spyware.
Internet access is widespread in the capital, Yerevan, and is expanding throughout the country. The reliability and speed of internet connections across Armenia have generally improved in recent years. Public Wi-Fi is readily available in Yerevan but more limited in other cities.
According to the most recent data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Armenia had a fixed-line broadband penetration rate of 18.5 percent and a mobile broadband penetration rate of 103 percent in 2023. The ITU also reported that 77 percent of individuals had access to the internet.
According to the Freedom House, 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.
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