What are the countries where the internet is the most censored?

In order to gag the independent media and limit the spread of certain information via the internet, some governments use sophisticated digital censorship and surveillance measures. Which countries are the most censored?

What is internet censorship (cybercensorship)?

Internet censorship also called cybercensorship refers to the monitoring and limitation of information circulating on the Internet. This practice by some repressive governments sometimes hinders citizens' freedom of expression. Officially, the practice is put in place to protect the population from obscene content. Unofficially, it allows the government to control political content circulating on the web.

What are the examples of censorship in different countries?

According to a list compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Eritrea and Korea are the countries with the strongest cyber censorship in the world. In Eritrea, the president succeeded in breaking down independent journalism and in 2011 abandoned his plan to make mobile internet available to his clients. Internet access in this country is therefore achieved by means of a slow dial-up connection. Less than 1% of the population is connected.

In North Korea, instead of the global Internet, some schools and institutions have access to a strictly controlled intranet. The global Internet is made available to only a privileged few. This situation thus makes it possible to limit and control all information and to suppress information that could discredit the acting president.

Other countries are on the list of the most censored countries. In Ethiopia (fourth country on the list), the threat is so great that there is an increase in the number of exiled journalists. In Cuba, only a small portion of the population has internet access. There are also other countries such as China, Iran, Azerbaijan, Syria, Vietnam which exercise strong censorship. Vietnam even bans access to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

What are the solutions to these censures?

Despite the censorship, there are small tools that allow freer and more secure access to the Internet. These include:

• Proxy servers: proxy servers function as a relay which makes the website visited believe that we are connecting from a relay computer.
• VPNs: VPNs like CyberGhost or Nord VPN are a safer and more efficient way to bypass cyber censorship. Indeed, the VPN creates a secure tunnel through which all your traffic will pass. So even your operator will not be able to access your traffic. The VPN also changes your IP address and replaces it with the address of the VPN you are using.
• The TOR network: it is based on an onion router system that allows you to guarantee your anonymity. The network takes the form of a web browser that uses a fabric of successive proxy servers.

In conclusion, different reasons can lead a government to restrict internet access in the territory. But most of the time countries with strong censorship like Eritrea, Vietnam, North Korea do it just to control political information. However, it is possible to bypass internet censorship by using proxy servers, VPNs, or the TOR network.