Mapped: Internet Freedom by Country in 2026

Yes= No=

Countries

• 🇫🇮 Finland
• 🇮🇸 Iceland
• 🇳🇴 Norway
• 🇧🇪 Belgium
• 🇩🇰 Denmark
• 🇸🇰 Slovakia 
• 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein

Seven of the countries in the top 11 are in Europe. Netizens in these 11 countries can freely access adult content sites, various social media platforms and VPN services with no worries, and there are no restrictions on political or civic expression online. 

Unsurprisingly, the same seven European countries also sit at or near the top of the Freedom House “Freedom in the World” rankings. This means they scored highly in areas like individual freedom, freedom of expression, and political and civil liberty. 

That said, many European countries’ liberal approach to internet freedom does not extend to torrenting. While torrenting itself is not banned outright — downloading non-copyrighted, freely available content is not an issue — downloading or distributing copyrighted content is against the law. 

Countries:

• 🇸🇷 Suriname
• 🇨🇷 Costa Rica

Costa Rica is well known for being one of the most liberal Latin American countries when it comes to internet access and digital rights. In addition to its ranking of 92 in our analysis, the country scored an impressive 91/100 with Freedom House (Freedom in the World). 

Suriname, a South American country, also scored 92 in our internet freedom ranking. As noted in the U.S. Department of State reports, the Surinamese government has not broadly restricted internet access, though websites were temporarily restricted during a period of rioting in 2023. 

Additionally, concerns about Suriname’s government’s interference with independent media persist, with some journalists and opposition members reporting interference and hacking of social media and email accounts. 

Countries:

• 🇳🇿 New Zealand

New Zealand is the only country in Oceania that received an internet freedom score within the top 10. Its neighbor across the Tasman Sea, Australia, scored a much lower 64 in our ranking. New Zealand is a world leader when it comes to democracy and freedom of expression, with the country earning a 99/100 Freedom in the World score from Freedom House data.

On the other hand, the 2024 Freedom House report mentions that journalists in New Zealand cite “abuse and intimidation, particularly online when they publish certain stories.” The report also highlights how Maori women endure the worst online abuse, including reported threats of sexual violence.

Countries:

• 🇹🇱 Timor-Leste 

While most Asian countries display a middling to poor performance in our internet freedom ranking, Timor-Leste stands out, joining Denmark, Finland, Costa Rica and others with a score of 92. Timor-Leste, in Southeast Asia, is an island country bordered by Indonesia. 

Despite its strong score and lack of social media restrictions, there are concerns about a proposed internet law. The law is designed to protect the country’s leaders from criticism, leading to worries that free speech will be impacted. 

Countries:

• 🇨🇳 China
• 🇮🇳 India
• 🇷🇺 Russia
• 🇹🇷 Turkey
• 🇵🇰 Pakistan
• 🇰🇵 North Korea
• 🇧🇩 Bangladesh
• 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan
• 🇲🇲 Myanmar (Burma)

North Korea was the country to score the lowest, with 0. In North Korea, known as a “hermit kingdom,” most citizens have absolutely no access to the wider internet, except for a few trusted members of the “elite.” Those who do are restricted to “Kwangmyong,” the national intranet service. 

Just above North Korea sit Russia, Pakistan, Iran and China, with scores of 4. None of these countries were marked “fully accessible” in any category, and all currently block or have a history of temporarily blocking certain global social media platforms, such as X, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. 

Some countries, like China, don’t completely ban VPNs and social media sites, but they do restrict citizens to government-approved ones — in other words, surveilled by government agencies. Expressing unwelcome political opinions online in any of these countries could land citizens in hot water, and all sit low or fairly low (Pakistan is considered “partly free”) in the Freedom in the World rankings.  

With internet freedom scores of anywhere from 12 to 20 in our ranking, India, Myanmar, Turkmenistan and Bangladesh also have significant internet censorship. 

Countries:

• 🇮🇷 Iran
• 🇮🇶 Iraq
• 🇸🇾 Syria
• 🇴🇲 Oman
• 🇾🇪 Yemen
• 🇸🇩 Sudan
• 🇪🇬 Egypt
• 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
• 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates

With a poor showing across all internet-freedom categories, Yemen, the UAE, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt scored 12, while Iraq scored 16. Political and civic expression online is restricted, banned or blocked entirely in these countries, and VPN use is completely illegal in Iraq and Turkmenistan. Adult content is also a big no-no. 

Oman, scoring 20 points, still shows deeply concerning findings: The Oman government recently introduced new media laws that critics worry will badly impact freedom of speech in the media. The law dictates that the Ministry of Information must approve any “media-related activities,” and penalties for violations of the law include fines and even imprisonment. 

Countries:

• 🇧🇾 Belarus

Belarus has the unwelcome distinction of being the only European country with a terrible online freedom score. The Eastern European country is notorious for human rights abuses, and it is the only European country that maintains the death penalty. Public criticism of the regime is not tolerated, and citizens risk being detained or arrested for protesting. 

While social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook remain available, they are subject to shutdowns and restrictions, especially during election periods, and expressing certain political opinions on these platforms is risky.

In addition, certain websites, including human rights sites, are often blocked on the premise of being “extremist.” VPN services also face bans, though Belarusians continue to use them to bypass censorship. 

Using OONI Explorer, we checked popular torrenting sites to find out where they’re either available but restricted or blocked entirely. When faced with ambiguous results, we checked the data against country-specific legal information to confirm its accuracy. 

Adult content sites are blocked or restricted in many locations for various reasons. We used OONI Explorer to research, and we reviewed legal information for the countries in question to confirm the accuracy of the platform’s findings. We scored countries based on whether adult content is completely accessible, restricted, or blocked or banned.

Note that we did not count age verification as a restriction in itself. However, if blocking or takedowns factored in alongside age verification, we counted it as a restriction. 

We used Freedom House data and supporting documentation to determine how free a country’s internet is in terms of political and civic content. To do this, we considered: 

• Social media blocking
• Communication platform blocking 
• Political, social or religious content blocking
• Information and communication technology (ICT) network disruption
• Whether online discourse is manipulated by pro-government entities 

Heavy censorship indicators, such as the following, resulted in an even lower score: 

• Deaths linked to online expression
• Arrest of bloggers, vloggers or ICT users
• Physical attacks linked to online expression
• Detainment or imprisonment of bloggers, vloggers or ICT users

We scored countries on whether VPN services are: 

• Banned or criminalized 
• Completely legal, with no restrictions
• Restricted via regulation or enforcement

We relied on current country-level summaries and reputable sources for analysis and verification.