Belarus remains firmly entrenched among the world's most restrictive digital environments, scoring 21 out of 100 points in Freedom House's newly released Freedom on the Net 2026 report. Only five countries fared worse: Cuba, Russia, China, Iran and Myanmar. The findings, drawn from an assessment of 38 countries, point to a global pattern that has now held for 16 consecutive years - internet freedom is shrinking, not expanding.
Belarus Stuck at the Bottom, Unchanged From Last Year
Belarus's score has not moved since the previous report, holding steady at 21 points and keeping the country firmly in the "not free" category. That stagnation is itself telling: it suggests neither meaningful reform nor further deterioration, but rather a settled state of tight control over online expression, independent media and digital infrastructure. Governments in this bracket typically rely on a familiar toolkit - blocking independent news sites, monitoring social media activity, prosecuting users for online speech, and pressuring service providers to hand over user data. Russia, China, Iran and Myanmar, all scoring in the single digits or just above, represent the deepest end of this spectrum, where internet access is treated less as a public utility and more as a channel to be surveilled and, when necessary, severed.
At the other end of the ranking, Estonia, Costa Rica, Taiwan, Australia, France, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States and Argentina posted the strongest scores, reflecting stronger legal protections for expression, fewer network disruptions, and more transparent rules governing surveillance. Ukraine landed in the middle tier, among countries classified as "partly free" - a status shaped by the practical difficulties of maintaining open digital infrastructure amid an active conflict.
A Smaller Survey, a Sharper Warning
This year's report covers roughly half as many countries as before, after Freedom House suspended assessments in 34 nations. The organization did not frame this as a change in methodology but as a reduction in scope, which means the 38 countries that remain under review offer a narrower, though still meaningful, window into global trends. The consistency of the downward trajectory across that smaller sample is itself notable: even with fewer countries assessed, the overall direction - toward tighter control, not greater openness - has not reversed.
Two forces stand out as drivers of this year's decline. First, authoritarian governments are working harder to wall off their citizens from the global internet, building domestic alternatives to international platforms and tightening control over cross-border data flows. Second, the spread of age-verification requirements for social media, often framed as child-safety measures, is creating new mechanisms for identity tracking that can be repurposed for broader surveillance.
Artificial Intelligence Becomes the New Battleground
Artificial intelligence now sits at the center of the debate over online rights. Lawmakers in many countries are drafting rules meant to curb AI-driven impersonation, harassment and disinformation - goals that enjoy broad public support. But Freedom House's researchers found that some of these same legal tools are being stretched by officials to suppress legitimate speech, using the pretext of AI regulation to justify content removal or platform restrictions that have little to do with AI itself.
The report's authors argue that the rise of agentic AI - systems capable of carrying out tasks without direct human instruction - will force a broader reckoning over how the internet itself is structured and governed. Their central recommendation is straightforward: whatever frameworks emerge to manage this shift should be built around preserving open exchange and free expression, not around expanding the apparatus of control that has driven sixteen straight years of decline.
