Libya, Sudan experience sharpest decline in internet freedoms in MENA region: report

Libya and Sudan are among the top four countries in the world who have experienced the sharpest downgrades in internet freedoms in the past year, according to a US-based NGO.

The African states, alongside Russia and Myanmar, "experienced the world’s steepest declines in internet freedom" between June 2021 and May 2022, a new report by Freedom House revealed.

The report, entitled 'Countering an Authoritarian Overhaul of the Internet', highlights that global online censorship has reached an "all time high", as over 75 percent of internet users across the world "live in countries where authorities punish people for exercising their right to free expression online".

The NGO classifies Libya's internet freedoms as being "partly free", while Sudan's is being "not free".

The thresholds of the categories - which also includes "free" - were set according to a score-based system undertaken by the NGO, whereby each country was awarded points under numerous political and civil liberties indicators.

Libya became unstable after a popular revolution toppled and killed former dictator Muammar Qaddaffi in 2011. For years the country has been split between rival administrations, each backed by militias and foreign governments.

Internet users in the country who shared "criminal commentary or reporting online" had been "been forcibly disappeared before re-emerging in detention", according to Freedom House.

Sudan's internet freedoms declined after military leaders staged a coup and dissolved the country's transitional government in October 2021.

Internet services across the country have been disrupted amid mass protests, curbing demonstrators' ability to share information on the situation in the country, according to monitoring groups and activists.

The Freedom House report also classified Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan's internet freedoms as being "not free".

It classified Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia as "partly free".

No other Arabic-speaking countries were listed, or considered "free" by the group.

The organisation highlighted that global internet freedoms have declined for the twelfth consecutive year.