U.S. surveillance erodes its leadership in Internet freedom

Internet freedom has declined in the United States over the past year as a result of its surveillance policies, reflecting a trend that appears to have caught on worldwide, according to a recently released study.

The study [PDF], conducted by Freedom House, gauged Internet freedom in 60 countries by tracking obstacles to access information online, limits on content, and violations of user rights. Among the issues cited in the report are government agencies' outright blocking of specific Internet content, surveillance measures, and legal and violent repercussions taken against those who use the Internet to criticize governing or religious bodies.

Iceland was the top-ranking nation on the list, which may not come as a surprise considering its recent role as a safe-haven for controversial Internet whistleblowers. Edward Snowden, for example, has recently expressed a desire for refuge in the country.

Estonia was the second-ranked country on the list (down from first last year), followed by Germany and the U.S., both of which received a score of 17 on Freedom House's scale of 1-to-100, which assigned points for higher rates of violations of Internet freedom. Australia, France, Japan, Hungary, Italy, and the UK round out the top ten.

Despite its relatively high ranking, the U.S. showed a significant decline in overall Internet freedom as a result of the revelations of its surveillance capabilities and their impact on the global Internet, Freedom House explained.

"While there is no evidence that the NSA surveillance programs were abused to suppress political speech, they have drawn strong condemnations at home and abroad for their wide-reaching infringements on privacy," the report says. "Since many large technology companieswith millions of users around the worldare based in the United States, the NSA was able to collect information on foreigners without having to go through the legal channels of the countries in which the targeted users were located."

However prevalent this trend may be in the U.S., it is also a sign of a much broader movement among international governments of all kinds. In 35 out of the 60 countries examined, Freedom House marked increases in the sophistication of communications monitoring technology, the scope of the people monitored, and the enactment of laws enabling the government to spy on its citizens.

Russia, for example, has increased its surveillance capabilities significantly since the Arab Spring began in late 2010, going as far as legalizing the government's wiretapping of opposing political parties, the report says.

The report also included the caveat that the problem is likely more common than its research reflects.

"There is a strong suspicion that many of the remaining 25 countries' governments have also stepped up their surveillance activities, though some may be better than others at covering their tracks," the report says.

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U.S. surveillance erodes its leadership in Internet freedom