Countries that failed to keep the internet free 2023

As of May 2023, India had 21 restrictions imposed against the freedom of speech on the internet. The country, thus, failed to follow the 2021 UN resolution about human rights on the internet, which it initially agreed on. The Indian government has since imposed 20 new internet restrictions in addition to one existing, becoming the country that has broken the agreement the most. Sudan has put nine regulations limiting internet use for its citizens.

The resolution about the promotion, protection, and enjoyment of human rights on the internet was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on July 13, 2021.

Countries claiming to support UN HRC resolution on human rights and free speech on the internet in 2021 but imposing online restrictions as of May 2023, by number of restrictions

Characteristic	Ongoing restrictions at time of July 2021 UN HRC resolution	New restrictions since July 2021 resolution
India	1	20
Sudan	0	9
Pakistan	1	6
Cuba	1	4
Uzbekistan	2	3
Burkina Faso	0	4
Russia	1	3
Brazil	0	2
Mauritania	0	2
Senegal	0	2
Armenia	0	1
Indonesia	0	1
Nigeria	1	0
Somalia	0	1
Ukraine	1	0

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Release date

May 2023

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Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

May 8, 2023

Supplementary notes

According to the source, "Drawing from the official documents for the July 2021 United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution on the promotion, protection, and enjoyment of human rights on the internet, we categorized 193 UN Member States into three groups. The “Supported” category includes countries that voted in favor of the resolution and countries that sponsored it. Note only the 47 Member States elected to the council at the time can vote on a resolution, while any of them can sponsor it. The “Abstained” category includes countries that abstained from voting on the resolution. The “Passive” category includes countries that could not vote on the resolution and did not sponsor it. The same approach of categorizing countries was taken with regard to the July 2016 UN HRC resolution of the same name."

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