Asia was the most censorship-intensive region worldwide, a Surfshark study co-created with Internet watchdog NetBlocks showed.
According to cybersecurity company Surfshark, internet restriction cases decreased by 14% worldwide in the first half of this year – from 84 in 2021’H2 to 72. Internet disruptions & restrictions were recorded in 10 countries, 85% being from India & the Jammu and Kashmir region, making Asia the leading continent in Internet shutdowns.
The continent also led in terms of social media disruptions over the period of seven years. Out of 72 Internet disruption cases in 2022, social media platforms were targeted six times: twice in Europe & Africa, & once in Asia & South America. Despite a decrease in cases, new Internet disruptions affected more citizens in 2022’H1 – 1.89B people compared to 1.54B in 2021’H2.
“We see a positive trend of Net restriction cases going down this half of the year. Nevertheless, the number of countries that use disruptions as a weapon to silence citizens’ unrest remains worryingly high. Most cases are of national or local magnitude where the internet is slowed or completely shut down, leaving its people without most of their communication means,“ said Agneska Sablovskaja, Lead Researcher at Surfshark.
In the first half of 2022, Surfshark registered 66 Internet blackouts in six countries & territories: Burkina Faso, India, Jammu and Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, & Sudan.
85% of the shutdown cases (61) happened in India & the Jammu and Kashmir region, twice in Burkina Faso, & once in the rest of the affected countries. Therefore, Asia has been considered the most censored continent worldwide for the past six months.
Research showed that social media censorship cases this year spread through all continents. In the first half of 2022, Surfshark recorded six incidents in 5 countries: Brazil, Burkina Faso, Sri Lanka, & Zimbabwe had all shut down their social media once, & Russia twice, with one case still ongoing. The most common reasons for censorship were political turmoil & protests.
According to Surfshark’s study, 5.7B people in 76 countries had been deprived of Internet access since 2015.
If we look at social media, in the first half of 2022, the most commonly restricted social media app was Facebook. 46% of the global population has been affected by government-imposed Facebook restrictions over the past seven years. Twitter & WhatsApp follow the app, the latter being the most censored voice-over IP (VoIP) app. Governments also targeted Instagram, Telegram, & YouTube.
Currently, 16 of 196 analyzed countries & territories were restricting access to social media or voice-over IP (VOIP) services. Most of the ongoing restrictions (12) were registered in Asian countries.
For a more extensive report on Internet restriction status worldwide, please visit the newly updated Internet Shutdown Tracker https://surfshark.com/research/internet-censorship, which was developed in partnership with the internet watchdog NetBlocks https://netblocks.org.
