Internet freedom around the world has deteriorated for a fifteenth consecutive year, according to the newly released Freedom on the Net 2025 report from Freedom House, a finding made all the more notable because the report nearly did not appear at all. Produced despite the loss of US government funding that long sustained it, the report tracks a familiar yet worsening pattern: arrests for online speech, surveillance expansion, and manipulation of digital spaces by governments and their proxies.
A report that almost didn't happen
Freedom House has relied heavily on State Department-backed democracy and human rights funding for years, and the Trump administration's decision to freeze foreign assistance programs in January 2025 gutted more than 80 percent of the organization's global activities. Layoffs followed, and longstanding contracts with the researchers who compile Freedom on the Net were terminated. That the 2025 edition exists at all is the result of a scramble for private and philanthropic support, researchers who stayed on out of commitment to the subject, and a reformulated project structure. For readers trying to make sense of an increasingly surveilled and restricted internet, resources explaining practical privacy tools remain valuable, and guides comparing VPN providers can help individuals understand how encryption and jurisdiction choices affect their own exposure to monitoring. comparing VPN providers
Where freedom eroded fastest
Of the 72 countries assessed, 27 saw declines, with Kenya registering the steepest drop. China and Myanmar remain the worst-rated environments, while Iceland tops the rankings as the freest. Perhaps most striking is that nine of the 18 countries rated "Free" experienced erosion this year, including Georgia, Germany, and the United States, undercutting the assumption that established democracies are immune to this trend. Citizens in at least 57 of the 72 countries were arrested or imprisoned for online expression during the coverage period, a record high that underscores how routine such punishment has become even outside the world's most repressive states.
Manipulation, AI, and the end of anonymity
The report's most consistent pattern over fifteen years involves online deception, the indicator that has declined most steadily. Roughly 70 percent of the global population now lives in countries where governments have attempted to manipulate online content, often using AI-generated material and undisclosed paid influencers to shape narratives. The report also warns that online anonymity is "entering a period of crisis," driven in part by identity verification systems that, despite being framed around child safety, expand the infrastructure for tracking ordinary users.
The United States, Brazil, and India
The United States kept its "Free" designation but posted one of the sharpest declines among democracies, tied to the detention of foreign nationals over nonviolent online expression and politicized investigations by federal regulators into media and technology companies. Brazil's section documents how disinformation networks tied to former President Jair Bolsonaro evolved into sophisticated, multiplatform influence operations, even as the government pours billions into sovereign AI development. India, rated "Partly Free," saw a flood of AI-generated, inflammatory content following military tension with Pakistan, alongside continued breaches affecting its Aadhaar identity database.
What comes next
Freedom House's recommendations call for interoperable privacy frameworks across democracies, a coordinated "whole of society" approach to information integrity, and preservation of intermediary safe harbor protections so platforms are not pushed toward excessive censorship. Researcher Kian Vesteinsson said the organization remains committed to the project despite uncertainty over future funding, arguing that amid the rush toward artificial intelligence, governments and companies need to return to "baseline principles around safeguarding freedom of expression and making sure privacy is protected."
