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By Rob Lever
Washington (AFP) – Governments around the world are stepping up the use of online tools, often inspired by the Chinese model, to crack down on dissent and tighten their grip on power, according to a study by human rights.
Freedom House's annual study of 65 countries revealed that global Internet freedom had decreased for the eighth consecutive year in 2018, due to the ramp-up of what the group called "the world." digital authoritarianism.
According to the Freedom on the Net 2018 report, online propaganda and misinformation are increasingly "poisoning" the digital space, while the frantic collection of personal data is undermining privacy.
"Democracies struggle in the digital age, as China exports its model of censorship and surveillance to control information both inside and outside its borders," he said. said Michael Abramowitz, president of Freedom House.
"This scheme poses a threat to the open internet and compromises the prospects for greater democracy in the world."
Chinese officials held information-control sessions with 36 of the 65 countries evaluated and provided telecommunication and surveillance equipment to a number of foreign governments, Freedom House said.
The report revealed that 17 governments had approved or proposed laws restricting online media in the name of combating "false information," while 18 countries had tightened surveillance or weakened encryption protection to monitor more closely their citizens.
According to the researchers, internet freedom has decreased in 26 countries from June 2017 to May 2018. Gains have been recorded in 19 countries, mostly minor ones.
Chinese "techno-dystopia"
One of the biggest threats, said Freedom House, lies in China's efforts to rebuild the digital world in its "techno-dystopian" image.
He cited a radical Chinese cybersecurity that is forcing local and foreign companies to "immediately stop the transmission" of banned content, and obliges them to ensure that data on Chinese users are hosted in the country.
This has been followed by "hundreds" of new guidelines on what people can and can not do online, and stricter controls on the use of VPN to evade detection.
According to the report, leaked documents and other evidence suggest that a million Muslims could be detained in internment camps in Xinjiang, often because of non-violent online activities. .
China appears to be using its large technology companies involved in the telecommunication infrastructure to expand its dominance and gain an advantage in surveillance, according to Freedom House.
Companies such as Huawei – largely excluded from contracts in the United States and Australia – are building infrastructure in many parts of the world, including Africa and Latin America, according to Freedom House's chairman of the board. Michael Chertoff, former US Secretary of Homeland Security.
"This opens up a potential for exploiting information in these countries by having technological backdoors that can be used by the Chinese government to collect information," Chertoff said during a conference call. .
To repress dissent
The researchers said online freedom was threatened by democratic and authoritarian states.
India is leading the world in terms of the number of internet closures, with more than 100 incidents reported in 2018 so far, claiming that these measures were necessary to end misinformation and incitement to violence.
Similar actions have been carried out in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.
"Cutting Internet services is a drastic response, especially at a time when citizens need it the most, whether to dispel rumors, ask relatives or avoid dangerous areas," said the researcher. from Freedom House Adrian Shahbaz.
"While deliberately falsified content is a real problem, some governments are increasingly using" false information "as a pretext to strengthen their control over information and suppress their dissent."
Shahbaz said more and more governments, including Saudi Arabia, are using "troll armies" to manipulate social media and, in many cases, drown out dissidents' voices.
"The deployment of an army of electronic trolls has become a tool of authoritarian diplomacy," he said.
The researchers said online freedom had also decreased in the US in part because of the removal of "network neutrality" rules that ensured that all data was treated equally, without "fast" or "fast" channels. slow "for commercial or other reasons.
Online freedom is also under threat in the United States as a result of the reappropriation of a surveillance law and a "hyper-partisan" environment in social media, marked by widespread disinformation efforts.
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