Survey Finds Widespread Support for Internet Freedom

 
Wed, 2014-03-19 21:13

The Global Attitudes Project at Pew Research released the results of a survey focused on government censorship of the Internet in twenty four countries around the world. Given the mission of OTF, we took great interest in the results.

Pew reported that majorities in 22 of the 24 countries say “it is important that people have access to the internet without government censorship.” Furthermore, in the two remaining countries, those refusing to participate made up the largest response category.

The survey also found that the higher the Internet adoption rate, the higher the opposition was to censorship. Demonstrating the critical importance of developing mechanisms of access in improving global Internet freedom.Another interesting result was that support for Internet freedom was significantly higher amongst younger populations. Five countries had gaps of 20 percent or more between those 18-29 and those over 50.

We at OTF will continue to analyze the result. At first glance, the survey clearly demonstrates the global interest in protecting the rights of individuals to express themselves freely on the Internet.